Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark has accused Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of betrayal for accepting to be the vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He said Okowa betrayed his southern governor-colleagues who, along with him, resolved that power should return to the South after eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari, who is from the North.
Clark said Okowa, after agreeing with other 17 southern governors, shockingly accepted to be a running mate of another Northerner. Chief Clark asked the Delta governor to step down as running mate to Abubakar Atiku and apologise to his colleagues and Southern Nigeria.
But Okowa in response denied the betrayal allegation, saying he only accepted to be running mate after a transparent party primary; adding that if he had not accepted the position another person would have done so.
The Ijaw leader, also in an open letter to Okowa, also asked him to account for how the N250 billion 13 per cent derivation fund received by the state was utilised.
The elder statesman said: “I can, therefore, understand why you have deliberately and immorally betrayed your colleagues of Southern Nigeria and the people for your own selfish ambition by wanting to land on safer ground by accepting to serve as running mate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“No, by God’s grace, your prayer will not be answered. Perhaps, you have forgotten the gravity of the offence you have committed against the people of Southern Nigeria.
“In order to cover your nefarious plot, you voluntarily induced everyone to host a meeting of the 17 Southern Governors in Government House Asaba on Tuesday 11th May 2021.
“You gave them a very good reception and provided them with a secretariat that drafted the communiqué under your supervision, which was ably read by the Chairman of the Southern Governors Forum, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State.
“It was indeed a bombshell, as you collectively demanded Southern Presidency and insisted that none of you should accept to be a Vice President.
“Shortly afterwards, the Southern and Middle-Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF), which I lead, gave the governors’ declaration 100 per cent support and declared that no Southern serving governor, legislator or politician should accept to be running mate, particularly to Atiku Abubakar.
“The 17 governors later met again in Lagos and Enugu to affirm the decision taken in your Government House Asaba. Little did we know that you were using this to perfect your secret plan to be running mate to Atiku Abubakar from the very beginning.
“We are, therefore, not surprised that you directed all the delegates from Delta State not to vote for Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State or Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State who are your neighbours. Instead, they voted massively for Atiku Abubakar during the PDP presidential primaries last year. We were, therefore, not surprised when you too have decided to finance Atiku Abubakar with Delta people’s money because there is nobody to challenge you. I repeat, you will not succeed.
“It is, therefore, in your own interest to openly apologise to your colleagues of both APC and PDP whom you deceived in taking a decision you never believed in. After your unreserved apology to your people and Southern Nigeria, you should step down your ambition of becoming Vice-Presidential candidate of the PDP. There your honour lies.
“We can now understand the reason you are never serious with your chairmanship of the South South Governors Forum since this will definitely compromise your ambition. You never for one day joined your colleagues to condemn the atrocities being perpetrated against our people, particularly the atrocities being committed by the armed AK 47 herdsmen who invaded Uvwheru, Igbuzor, Okpanam, Abraka and very lately Patani. This is because it will annoy your Northern friends.”
Okowa, through Delta Information Commissioner, Charles Aniagwu, said if he had not accepted to be Atiku’s running mate after the primaries, someone else would have.
Aniagwu said: “On the allegation of misuse of N250billion 13 per cent derivation fund, nothing can be far from the truth because the said fund is being paid in quarterly installments and as at last record we have only received four instalments totaling N19.6billion.
“Because of the time value of money and inflationary tendencies, we decided to discount N100 billion. On application to the House of Assembly, we listed some landmark projects to be completed from the fund.
“Some of them, including the Ogheye Floating Market, Koka Flyover and Interchange, Maryam Babangida Leisure Park, Film Village and Zoo, Mother and Child Specialist Hospital and Advanced Diagnostics Medical Centre, have been completed, inaugurated and currently operational.
“We are also aware that our leader, Chief Clark has made his own political choice by endorsing a presidential candidate of another political party which we agree and respect as his own fundamental right.
“We hold the view that it is not democratically nor constitutionally out of place for other persons to also have the right to associate with others which is equally legitimate. We are all aware that the country is so divided and the rhetoric that tends to divide the country further along the line of North and South dichotomy cannot do the country any good hence we urge that persons of all classes need not engage in divisive actions or utterances.
“As well-meaning Nigerians, we expect that senior citizens should promote actions that tend to unite the country and not that which would further divide us. The Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar won the party’s primary on the account of free and transparent votes of delegates of the party across the country.”
“The constitution of our country is very clear that once a presidential candidate emerges, he is duty bound to choose a running mate and by tradition from the other side of the country. It couldn’t have been the right thing to say that we should have rejected the nomination because if we had, other persons would have also accepted it.
“We will continue to respect Chief Clark despite the recent attacks on Governor Okowa. We also put it on record that the highly respected elder statesman had supported us in the past up to 2019 and had cause to commend the governor for his sterling accomplishments in the state. So, we will not begrudge him because he has chosen to support someone else this time around.”
