Gov Ifeanyi Okowa
By Innocent Ojefia
The revelations about the nature of resources released from the Federal Government by Governor Nyeson Wike and former Governor Adams Oshomhole that arrears from 1999 to date amounting to N250billion and another N60billion refund for Federal roads have necessitated a second look on our Governor and the results show a leader serving himself, his family and his village.
After listening to their lame explanations on N250 billion and N60 billion refunds, it is clear that these people are irredeemable liars, and that’s why they make concerted efforts to evade accountability when called out.
This is the lowest moral/legal turpitude a Delta State government has ever sunk. Delta State is now the private estate of one man, the Governor. It will therefore be a great disservice to allow Okowa to extend and prolong his tenure in office through a stooge.
Okowa’s tenure is marked by notorious nepotism. Okowa’s wife is the Deputy Governor, his younger brother is the de facto Commissioner for Sports, and his elder sister Ngozi is the general overseer of the government.
To consolidate his family holds on the State, in one fell swoop his daughter, Dr. Mildred Okowa-Igumbor was transferred from the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba to the State Ministry of Health, promoted to level 16, and made the Director General of Primary Health, even though there were many more senior officers in the ministry. This was done because of the foreign exchange, which comes from donor agencies, such as WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNFPA, and UNDP among others. To have his way with his vile quest, he transferred Dr. Mrs. Oseji, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health who insisted on due process.
Dr. Ejiro Ogheneaga who took over from Dr. Mrs. Oseji was yesterday punitively transferred to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs for once again raising eyebrows over the circumstances of Dr. Okowa-Igumbor’s engagement in the State Ministry of Health. It is being insinuated that Okowa wants to make the daughter a permanent secretary before leaving office.
In the face of the suffering and death of pensioners, the insensitive Okowa administration, between 2019 and 2022 callously budgeted over N2 billion for the Girl Child Initiative headed by his daughter, Marilyn Okowa-Daramola, a Senior Special Assistant, who is now the PDP House of Assembly candidate.
For fear that the daughter could be called upon to account for the resources that have passed through that unit, Okowa recently turned it into a quasi-Ministry of Girl Child Entrepreneurship and Development, with one of the cronies of the first lady as Commissioner. It is difficult to understand the girls’ challenges in Delta State to warrant such huge resource allocation to an office originally manned by an SSA.
The North China Construction Company, which handled the new State Secretariat, is currently handling the construction of the Asaba to Nsukwa section of the Ughelli/Asaba highway, including the Fly-over Bridge at Koka is owned by Okowa’s younger sister Ivana and her husband Mark Shenton. It is therefore understandable why this company is always on site.
The Governor has partnered with others to incorporate a bank, Premium Trust Bank, headed by Okowa’s younger brother. The Commissioner for Finance and the Account General of the State have been directed to instruct all Ministries and Agencies to transfer their accounts to the bank.
The governor in connivance with the Speaker and Professor Muoboghare, the disgraced former Commissioner for Higher Education, deceived Deltans that they were going to upgrade the College of Education Agbor to a degree-awarding institution. In the end, Okowa established three State universities. In a State with three Senatorial Districts, he gave Delta North two full-fledged universities, Delta South one and a half, and reduced Delta Central to half with the Faculties of Law and Engineering in Delta South.
In the same vein, the Governor took all the major courses of the University at Agbor: Law, Medicine, Environmental Sciences, Pharmacy, and others to Owa-Alero his village, leaving Agbor the main campus with just the name. It is not more than a glorified secondary school. Other projects such as the advanced Diagnostic Medical Centre and the Mother and Child Hospital all in Owa-Alero, and are ready for inauguration, while the Teachers Institute Training Centre and the Federal Road Safety Training School have been commissioned.
The Governor is in a hurry to complete the Teaching Hospital at Owa-Alero, while Oghara Teaching Hospital is nearly dead. While completing the sub-standard Stephen Keshi stadium, both Warri and Sapele stadiums and even the one in Orerokpe where his speaker comes from are dead. The mother and child hospital Owa-Alero is almost complete, while that at Ekpan is abandoned.
For another eight years of PDP under Okowa, despite receiving a N60 billion refund on federal roads, the State government could not complete the Ughelli/Asaba highway nor maintain the Agbor/Warri road. Unfortunately, it took the State government over seven years to realize that the company handling the Isoko section was not performing.
To the independent-minded voters: Rotating governing political party curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for APC, given that PDP has overstayed its usefulness in office and has become lethargic and non-responsive to the yearnings and needs of the people.
Source: OJ INNOCENT.COM
About Author
