A coalition of members of All Progressive Congress, APC, Delta State
chapter have accused Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru, the Party’s Governorship
candidate of stealing the sum of N3billion, meant for the 2019 campaign,
sabotaging the party’s chances at the elections.
The group is calling on President Mohammadu Buhari and Chairman of APC,
Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, to immediately commence investigation on Chief
Ogboru and how he spent N3billion meant for elections.
We call on the National Leader of the Party, His Excellency, President
Muhammadu Buhari and our National Working Committee led by Comr. Adams
Oshiomhole to immediately set inquiry for Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru to
explain the whereabouts of the huge Financial Provisions for the entire
2019 General Elections, the groups said in a press conference.
“It is of public knowledge that Great Ogboru presented a budget of over
THREE BILLION NAIRA, which budget was over funded and availed to him.
There was no evidence anywhere that he spent N1 billion for the elections.
He refused to properly disburse and chose to release paltry amounts only
to his few chosen supporters. Even for his LGA rallies, he never released
one Kobo, instead he directed that local leaders and supporters’ task
themselves to fund such rallies, and because most leaders couldn’t raise
such funds, a lot of LGA rallies were either abandoned or turn out to be
huge flops! We also have it on good authority that commissioner positions
were sold N50 million each in advance to raise funds that were diverted
from the campaigns!”
“APC, as a Mega Political Party, cannot be brought to the low level of
mushroom political parties where Ogboru has been practicing his
hit-and-run politics of election racketeering and getting away with the
dubious acts. Ogboru should be probed!
The groups said Ogboru did more to divide the party in that state than
unite it.
The Text at the Press Conference reads:
Chief Ogboru acted like a man determined to fail at all costs by ignoring
and refusing to carry along even the old APC members who joined him with
Prophet Jones Erue. He stubbornly chose to work only with the few Labour
Party people who he came into the APC with. Even at that, he couldn’t
manage things properly within his inner circle as there were open
hostilities and in fighting between his core people and those of Sen. Ovie
Omo-Agege on one hand, and former Gov. Emmanuel Uduaghan’s people on the
other hand.
Stressing further : It is with an air of the mixed feelings of both Joy of
APC’s Victory in the Presidential Election and Sadness of the Party’s
Failure at the Gubernatorial Poll in Delta State, that we, the Coalition
of Delta APC Support Groups, address you today in this post-election
briefing, after our crucial urgent meeting held in Asaba, to clinically
and critically appraise the just-concluded General Elections.
First and foremost, we whole-heartedly Congratulate our beloved President,
His Excellency, General Muhammadu Buhari, the President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, his vice, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the All
Progressives Congress, APC Family across Nigeria, and, indeed, Nigerians
on the well-deserved victory at the Presidential elections.
We are, indeed, saddened by the unfortunate loss of the gubernatorial
election in Delta State, where Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru was the Party’s
(APC) Candidate to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the most
traumatizing and shameful manner despite the enormous support and
opportunities provided by the National Leadership of the Party.
We were not surprised at the outcome of the Saturday gubernatorial
election in Delta State, as the stage for failure has since last year been
set when Chief Great Ogboru who just joined the party took the destructive
decision to hijack the party in display of desperation! Unfortunately,
working with Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, they were able to hoodwink and secure
the undeserved backing of our National Chairman Comr. Adams Oshiomhole and
the National Working Committee of the Party.
It was disheartening to see that after they achieved their objectives
which ended up factionizing the party, they made no efforts to unite the
party by stooping to conquer. And worst still, inspite of commendable
efforts by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to unite the party in
the State ahead of the elections, Chief Ogboru still didn’t seize the
opportunity to reach out to the Ogodo/Emerhor side to procure peace and
unity. Even worse, he also either pushed aside or completely ignored other
key stakeholders particularly in the Delta North like Engr. Hyacinth
Enuha, Rt. Hon. Engr. Victor Ochei, Professor Pat Utomi, Mrs Marian Ali,
Dr. Cairo Ojuogo and others thereby unwittingly conceding the whole of
Delta North District to Okowa right from the get go!. In the South
District, Ogboru neither cultivated in key person nor did he have any
persons, nor plans in place to win, while at home in his Delta Central
District, he naively believed he would win 100% without making any efforts
to unite the party in Central for such task.
While the PDP was busy going round the nooks and crannies of the State
with an aggressive campaign, Chief Ogboru refused to embark on intensive
grassroots campaigns round the State to market his manifesto to the people
simply because of his total dependence on a so-called Federal might, which
made him to also ignore every other critical stakeholders and groups, even
including Buhari Support Groups in the State. He had not a single bill
board or posters particularly in Delta north and South of the State. He
only held rallies, sometimes, combining 3 LGAs in one location, and then
naively went away believing he has campaigned in those two Senatorial
zones!
It is pertinent to note that the National Working Committee’s recognition
of the Jones Exco was nothing but handing over the Party’s Gubernatorial
Ticket to the electoral merchant, Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru – a Man with
no electoral value who was over-sold himself to our National Chairman Comr
Oshiomhole! His destructive deception then left the Delta APC comatose
with the attendant implications which is the woeful failure that the Party
suffered in the hands of the PDP at the Saturday March 9 elections.
While we are not ignorant of the fact that a winner must emerge in every
contest, the loss of APC in the Delta 2019 gubernatorial election becomes
more painful to us when we realize the enormous opportunities available to
the APC to win the election but which were misappropriated by Chief Great
Ovedje Ogboru who has proven himself as a man without a strong political
structure that has been responsible for his failures in the previous 5
consecutive governorship elections he participated in since 2003 to 2015
before crossing over to APC.
For the first time for Delta APC, we had the massive power of the federal
government at the centre behind us, our National leadership stood firmly
for us providing enormous support in resources and otherwise. The masses
of Delta State were ready to effect a change in Delta. But what we clearly
did not have was a focused and determined Governorship candidate to
translate the opportunity to victory! In fact, we consider it a notorious
fraud for Great Ogboru to waste the 2019 APC Gubernatorial Ticket in such
questionable and shameful circumstances where the Party won a paltry 2
Local Government Areas out of 25 with an alarming figures of 215,938
against PDP’s 925,274.
Finally, we reiterate our demand that the National Working Committee (NWC)
of our great party to set up a panel of enquiry to immediately review the
outcome of the Delta APC overall performance in the just concluded
election: The funds received by the campaign council, the disbursement of
funds and those who received the funds at various Local Government Areas
in the State and to review the results from each polling units across the
State as it was noticed that most leaders played anti party at various
levels in the State. We demand for ‘Operation Show your ward results from
every leader in Delta APC’ irrespective of who they are or the positions
they hold. We understand that Chief Ogboru and a number of his supporters
who could not even win their polling units, not to talk of wards, have all
concluded arrangements to beseech Abuja and again lie and hoodwink our
National Chairman and other National leaders in a bid to secure juicy
federal political appointments!
We must separate the Sheep’s from the Goat’s in Delta APC and only empower
performing leaders in order to so have a formidable and strong party in
our State going forward.
The Statement was signed by Prince Daniel Ekiugbo, Convener, Coalition of
Delta APC Support Groups