Two ex-Ministers Square Off Over Delta 2023 As Orubebe Slams Bozimo Over Purported Ijaw’s Adoption Of Oborevwori

…You don’t have the authority to speak for the Ijaw people, Orubebe tells Bozimo

Two former Ministers of Ijaw ethnic nationality are currently at dagger drawn posture over Delta State governorship race.

 According to BIGPEN NIGERIA (www.bigpenngr.com), while one, a former minister of Niger Delta affairs and campaign director general of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State, Elder Godsday Peter Orubebe, is supporting Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, the deputy senate president, the other, a former minister of police affairs, Alaowei Broderick Bozimo, is rooting for Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, the PDP governorship candidate.

 Trouble was said to have started after Bozimo, was quoted in the media as having announced the adoption of Oborevwori as the preferred governorship candidate of the Ijaw ethnic nationality in the March 11th, 2023 gubernatorial election in Delta State.

 However, Orubebe took issue with the development, accusing the former minister of police affairs of ‘boot licking’ in the alleged adoption of Oborevwori as the Ijaw nation’s preferred candidate for the 2023 general election.

The alleged adoption resulted from a meeting Bozimo had with some Ijaw PDP leaders, during which he appointed Wing Commander Peter Biakpara (rtd) to lead a committee tasked with visiting resentful PDP members to convince them to support Oborevwori’s election bid.

 Orubebe, however, asserted at the press conference held in Warri on Saturday that Bozimo lacked the authority to order the Ijaw nation to support Oborevwori, “Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s chosen stooge,” in the 2023 Delta State governorship election.

 The dismissal, according to Orubebe, was intended to disabuse discerning and gullible members of the public who might believe Bozimo’s position represented the views of the entire Delta Ijaw nation. 

Orubebe claimed that at first he had wanted to ignore the “ranting of frustrated and misguided leaders of a drowning and failing political party,”  the PDP.

 He claimed that despite waiting days for Bozimo to deny the media report that had been credited to him, he had unforgivably and dishonourably kept silent about the alleged endorsement of Oborevwori’s candidacy.

 “We also waited patiently for a few days to give him time to probably come to terms with the far-reaching implications of  this unguided utterance and consequently issue a rebuttal to denounce the authorship of the report.  His unpardonable and undignified silence, days after the report came into the public domain, necessitated this press conference”, he said.

 Orubebe stated that the Ijaw nation had received no concrete benefit from Okowa’s administration in exchange for Bozimo dropping the name of the Ijaw nation as having adopted “Okowa’s stooge as the preferred candidate of the Ijaw nation.”

 The former minister also attacked PDP vice presidential candidate Governor Okowa for failing to complete the Ogbobagbene-Torugbene-Ojobo road project he inherited from NDDC eight years ago. 

He bemoaned the fact that Okowa has continued to treat the Ijaw nation unfairly, including by establishing three universities in the state by fiat on a single day without considering the Ijaw nation.

 A press statement read by Orubebe states; “Thus, in my capacity as the Director General of the All Progressives Congress (APC)  Campaign Council in Delta State, I make bold to say that the media report credited to Alaowei Broderick Bozimo is the height of hypocrisy and portrays the unpatriotic nature of a man at 83, who should be thinking of what legacies he would bequeath to the successive generations after he eventually answers the call of his Maker.

 “If one may ask, what are the reasons that Bozimo has to tell Ijaw people to continue to work for PDP and adopt  Okowa’s stooge as the preferred candidate of the Ijaw nation? Is it that Okowa and PDP have done so much for the people or because Bozimo is a Patron of the wicked and rudderless government of Okowa? No doubt, it is the second reason!

 He described Bozimo as a friend to any government in power, especially at the state level, “apparently because of the personal gains that such a relationship brings to him and members of his family”. 

“Therefore, the gullible public should not be deceived by the antics of a man, who does not have the interest of the Ijaw nation at heart.”

 He claimed that, aside from the Bomadi Bridge built by former governor Chief James Ibori, there hasn’t been much in the way of significant development projects undertaken by the various PDP state governments since 1999. He also claimed that Ijawland, despite making significant contributions to the state’s coffers, is largely in squalor.

 “In eight years, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa could not finish the construction of Ogbobagbene-Torugbene-Ojobo road project, which he took from NDDC and deceived the people that he would  complete it in record time. That of Ogriagbene- Torugbene has since been abandoned. For eight years, Okowa could not complete the Ayakoromo bridge started during the tenure of Emmanuel Uduaghan. No single critical road is done by Okowa in the Ijaw nation.

 “Ifeanyi Okowa established three universities by fiat in a single day. He did not deem it fit to be equitable in their seating by giving one to the Ijaw nation.

 Orubebe argued that Bozimo is “licking boots” rather than speaking truth to power, and that Bozimo ought to reflect on whether Ijaws dislike attending school. 

“He should ask himself if Ijaw doesn’t need hospitals,  good road networks, and other life enhancing infrastructures. No wonder he was roundly rejected to lead the INC as president when the Ijaw nation was looking for a leader.

 The former minister argued that it is inconceivable that Bozimo is unaware of the PDP’s deteriorating fortunes, both in Delta State and across the entire nation. 

“Alaowei Broderick Bozimo has always patronised governments, whether for good or for bad.” No person who means well for our people would want to continue to support a party and a government that has given a leprous treatment and impoverished our people except he or she is deriving personal benefits from the unjust system. That is exactly the case of Bozimo”, he added.

 “To the discernible public and my patriotic Deltans, Alaowei Broderick merely spoke on behalf of his Ijaw co-travellers in the PDP as he has no locus and authority  to make a blanket general statement on behalf of the highly respected Ijaw ethnic nationality.”

 “Gentlemen of the press, please convey this to the public that Alaowei Broderick Bozimo is on his own, and he can only represent himself and his PDP co-deceivers. He can’t offer political direction to the Ijaw nation because the Ijaw nation didn’t confer him with such a mandate. It’s certainly for self-preservation”.

 He therefore called on Ijaw patriots in the political arena to take advantage of the ballot box revolution that the 2023 elections present and “vote out the PDP in order to put an end to its years of locust rule in Delta State”. 

“As a people, we must take our destiny into our own hands and say “NO” to shenanigans parading themselves as leaders.

 According to him, in order to participate in the new dawn that the APC’s new leadership would usher in for the nation on May 29th, 2023, the Ijaw people must seize the opportunity of a new lease of life promised by APC’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the party’s governorship candidate in Delta State, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.