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Tag: Dr. Cairo Ojougboh

  • ‘Okowa running Delta state without budget’

    ‘Okowa running Delta state without budget’

    The former Deputy National Chairman of Alimodu Sheriff-led faction of the People Democratic Party (PDP) who recently joined the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Dr. Cairo Ojougboh has accused the Delta state governor, Ifeanyi Okowa of massive corruption and running a government without a formal budget passed by the state House of Assembly as required by law.

    Ojougoh said in a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari that the Appropriation Committee of the State House of Assembly has not sited the state budget since the beginning of the year, adding that the Speaker of the House, merely signed the last page of the supposed budget without any form of estimate and submitted same to the governor who affixes figures as he wishes.

    While asking the President to order the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) to investigate the Delta state government over alleged “blank 2017 budget and appropriation” for the state, challenged members of the state Assembly especially members of the Appropriation committee to show the World copy of the 2017 appropriation which they passed into law.

    He alleged that ten members of the Delta State House of Assembly informed him in confidence “of the high level of fraud that is currently ongoing in their legislative House.” 

    The letter reads: “Mr President, it is with heavy heart distress and grief that I write you this letter, Mr President; I am an Indigene of Agbor, Ika South L.G.A of Delta State, former member of the House of Representatives, former Presidential Liaison Officer to the Senate and SSA to the President, former National Vice Chairman South-South of the PDP and immediate past National Deputy Chairman of the PDP. 

    “This is to bring to your notice the hydra-headed corruption and malignant impunity that is currently dancing and celebrating in the Delta State House of Assembly.

    “Mr President, ten (10) members of the Delta State House of Assembly informed me (in strict confidence; that their names and families be protected) of the high level of fraud that is currently ongoing in their legislative House where they ply their trade as Lawmakers. According to them, they were emboldened when they learnt that I had left the PDP on 16th September 2017 and they felt the urgent need to now confide in me that I have left the PDP.

    “The very important issue at hand is that the members confessed to me that up till 3rd day of October they have not seen, sighted or read a copy of the Delta State 2017 budget.

    “The Hon. Speaker of Delta State House of Assembly Rt. Hon. Sherrif Oborevwori signed only the last page of the budget and returned same to the Government; the Government then fills in the blank arbitrarily and apportions appropriation at will.

    “The Chairman of the Appropriation Committee of the Delta State House of Assembly and the entire members have not sighted the budget break down and estimates as the conventional practice, the actions of the Speaker with the active connivance of the Government amounts to the issuance of a blank 2017 budget and appropriation for Delta State.

    “Mr President, I dare any member of the Delta State House of Assembly to produce a copy of the approved budget estimate signed by the Chairman Appropriation Committee, the Clark and the Speaker, let any member display same on any website.

    “Mr President, I had the opportunity to speak with Prof. Sam Oyovbaire on issues of impunity and corruption in Delta State. For your information Prof. Sam Oyovbaire presented Dr Okowa to the Urhobo nation and Okowa was accepted by the Urhobos due to the person of Prof. Sam Oyovbaire.

    “I told Prof. Sam Oyovbaire that he has a name and integrity to protect, that he should disassociate himself from the mess going on in Delta State.   

    “I therefore in all humility call on Mr. President who is credited by the International Committee not to own a single house and bank account outside Nigeria, who won the presidential general election against an incumbent President due to your anti-corruption credentials to kindly deploy your good offices to cause a thorough investigation into the fraud currently in Delta State through the Blank Budget and appropriations issued by the Delta State House of Assembly by the anti-graft agencies.

    “Mr President, I am 58 years old, a soldier of truth, if I cannot stand to defend my people on matters of this nature and injustice, then I will not be fair to my God and conscience. It is most excruciating and painful that our hard earned State resources are being stolen in broad daylight.

    “Mr President, I humbly on behalf of the good people of Delta State plead and solicit of you to passionately cause and direct the relevant Government Agencies to investigate the above allegation against the Delta State House of Assembly.

    “I want to assure you, as the 2019 general election draws near, that over two (2) million votes are at stake in Delta State, your reward for addressing the fraud in Delta State shall be total unequivocal support for you and your Government and your Great Party the APC. Mr President, Delta State is dying. Kingly direct the EFCC, DSS, ICPC and Code of Conduct to investigate.”

  • Mass defection hits Delta PDP as Sheriff faction joins APC

    Mass defection hits Delta PDP as Sheriff faction joins APC

    The camp of the opposition All Progressive Congress (Delta chapter) swelled Saturday when supporters of the former national chairman of PDP, Ali Modu Sheriff joined the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).

    The over 14,000 loyalists were led into APC by former deputy national chairman of the PDP, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh,

    Ojougboh, former member of House of Representatives, was also a former vice chairman of PDP in the South-South zone.

    Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachukwu who hails from the state; national vice chairman of APC (S/S), Mr. Hilliard Eta; chairman of the party in the state, Jones Erue; O’tega Emerhor and Hyacinth Enuha were among APC chieftains that received the new members at a ceremony in Agbor, Ika South L.G.A.

    The ceremony witnessed the symbolic dumping of PDP membership cards into a waste basket and the lowering of a huge PDP banner thus signaling the rejection of the party by the former members.

    Dr. Ojougboh said they were suffocated out of PDP, adding that after the Supreme Court judgment that affirmed the Ahmed Markafi national leadership, members of the Sheriff faction were sidelined.

    His words, “We asked the national body to open up the party after the unfortunate court judgment; the next thing we heard was that they were going to grant us amnesty as if we are criminals. When Raymond Dokpesi was nominated as member of the committee for the non-elective convention, his nomination was rejected because they said they spent money on the court judgment”.

    Continuing, “As if that was not enough, during the Anambra State governorship primary election, Jerry Gana was made chairman of a three-man committee to midwife a transparent election but governors Ayo Fayese of Ekiti State and Nyesom Wike of Rivers State rejected it and came up with another committee that went to Anambra and handed everything to Peter Obi.

    “Back here in Delta, we asked the state governor, Ifeanyi Okowa to remove impunity but what we continue to see here is a corrupt and family government. Till date, Okowa has not been able to account for the N20 billion Paris Club refund”.

    According to Ojugboh ,”We now said it is time to look for people of like minds, people of progressive ideology to meet with because I know most of you have ambitions to pursue. If we do not make a decision to belong to the progressives, most of you will miss out.”

    Former factional chairman of the PDP in the state, Mr. Austin Ogbaburhon told APC chieftains that the Sheriff faction is a beautiful bride, adding that they have rejected offers from other political parties and enjoined APC to negotiate well.

    Receiving the new entrants, vice chairman of APC, South-South, Mr. Hilliard Eta said the new members have further brightened the party’s chances to wrest power from the PDP in the state come 2019.

    “For us at the national working committee of the APC, Delta is a low hanging fruits for us to pluck but the coming of Ojougboh and his teeming supporters has made the fruits even lower for us.

    “We welcome you into the party and urge you to go to your units and wards to register. Registration is free and you will add value to APC,” Eta said.

  • PDP: Wike, Fayose not sponsors of Jonathan’s peace meeting – Committee

    PDP: Wike, Fayose not sponsors of Jonathan’s peace meeting – Committee

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said it was untrue that Rivers governor, Nyesom Wike and his Ekiti counterpart, Ayodele Fayose, sponsored the party’s April 6 stakeholders’ meeting.

    The Publicity Secretary of the National Caretaker Committee of the party, Mr Dayo Adeyeye stated this at the news conference on Friday in Abuja.

    Deputy National Chairman of the party, Dr Cairo Ojougboh, had at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday alleged that the stakeholders’ meeting convened and chaired by former President Goodluck Jonathan was sponsored by both governors.

    Ojougboh, who claimed to be speaking for PDP National Chairman, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff, alleged that Wike spent N50 million to host the meeting.

    Adeyeye said that the committee would have ignored the allegations since Ojougboh was not an officer of PDP, but stated that doing so may send wrong signals to unsuspecting members of the public.

    He said that the PDP was not surprised that Ojougboh would hallucinate and found pleasure in castigating the two governors at every turn.

    He said that it was unfortunate that Ojougboh had never been able to utter a single word of criticism against his “paymaster, the ruling party”.

    Adeyeye recalled that the meeting was agreed at the residence of former National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Aliyu Gusau, in the presence of Sheriff, Prof. Wale Oladipo, Sen. David Mark, Sen. Ahmed Makarfi and Sen. Ben Obi.

    “In the light of the above, therefore, it is uncharitable for Ojougboh to allege that the stakeholders meeting was organised and sponsored by Wike and Fayose.

    “Indeed, it is the height of indecency for Sheriff and Ojougboh to allege that a person of Jonathan’s standing could be induced by anyone, not the least a governor, to organise the meeting,’’ he said.

    Adeyeye said that indecency was the nature of Ojougboh and his sponsors, adding that it was the reason they had no qualms in dragging decent people into the mud.

    He also denied Ojougboh’s allegation that Wike bribed the Judiciary with five million dollars to get justice on the Rivers Governorship Election at the Supreme Court.

    “We have been reliably informed that the latest accusation against the judiciary is part of their calculated and clandestine plot to blackmail the Justices of the Supreme Court.

    “That was what they did to the Justices of the Special Appeal Panel during the Ondo State Gubernatorial Election case.’’

    He requested the Supreme Court to find out from Ojougboh who among its officers that Wike disbursed the five million dollars to as he alleged.

    “Let Ojougboh be informed that he cannot pitch the good people of Rivers against their loving and performing governor over his childish and mindless allegation of financial impropriety,’’

    Adeyeye advised all PDP chapters in the states to ignore any directive regarding national convention by Sheriff.

    He also described the purported National Executive Council (NEC) meeting being summoned by Sheriff on May 3 as “total fraud, politically and legally’’.

    He urged chairmen of the states’ chapters of the party to disregard Sheriff’s request for the submission of delegates’ lists on or before April 27.

    Adeyeye said that PDP would announce meetings of its various organs at an appropriate time after due consultation with all stakeholders.

    On ongoing campaign by Sheriff in the South-East and South-South zones, he commended PDP stakeholders in the regions “for not partaking in such illegality.

    “The presence of the two deputy governors was solely on grounds of hospitality.

    “The PDP is not organising any campaign or rally around the country at the moment.

    “We urge our members to remain steadfast and continue to ignore any meeting called by Sheriff.’’

  • Jonathan, Wike, Fayose, Sheriff trade tackles again over pdp crisis

    Jonathan, Wike, Fayose, Sheriff trade tackles again over pdp crisis

    LEADERS of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are still tearing at one another despite moves to ensure peace in the troubled party. Rivers State Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike yesterday described court-backed National Chairman Ali Modu Sheriff as a mole of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). The governor claimed that the Federal Government was sponsoring Sheriff because of the “destructive crisis that has engulfed the APC at the national level”.

    The governor spoke at the Sharks Stadium in Port Harcourt, the state capital, after receiving defectors said to be from the APC. His attack on Sheriff coincided with the chairman’s allegation that the governor gave former President Goodluck Jonathan N50 million to organise the botched PDP Stakeholders’ meeting.  Dr. Jonathan has denied the allegation, saying that he convened the meeting out of his genuine concern for peace to reign in the party.  Wike said: “Sheriff is a mole of the APC who is being sponsored by the Federal Government.  They are sponsoring Sheriff because of the crisis in the APC “.

    On the 2019 general elections, Wike said the alleged plan by INEC to rig in Rivers State would fail. He advised that only card readers should be used for the 2019 poll, adding that manual accreditation would lead to the manipulation of results. Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose said Sheriff has taken his desperation too far by accusing the former president of taking bribe. Fayose, in a message by his media aide, Lere Olayinka, stated: “If Sheriff has taken his desperation to serve his paymasters in the APC to the level of accusing Jonathan of being bribed to organise peace meeting for the PDP, there is no reason for any sane mind to continue to respond to the continuous advertisement of his political insanity.”

    Sheriff, who spoke through his deputy, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh at a news conference at the party’s secretariat, said Governors Wike and Fayose recruited Dr Jonathan into a fake peace effort pre-determined to scuttle the ongoing peace initiative in the party. “The result is that President Jonathan was lured into committing a serious breach of protocol that led to the failure of the exercise which was the intended outcome,” Sheriff said. According to him, Wike and the media chief, Dr Raymond Dokpesi, have already established their own political party.

    Their mission, he said, is to tie the PDP down with undue controversies. He said the party was worried that the amount of money Wike was spending on the crisis could smear the image of the PDP. “This money belongs to the people of Rivers State and it should not be misappropriated at the expense of the people to whom it rightfully belongs. “We, therefore, call on party leaders and Nigerians to refrain from accepting this money from Governor Wike in line with the spirit of our founding fathers,” Sheriff added.

    The party chairman restated his determination to go ahead with the plans to organise a convention for the party, saying preparations for a free and fair exercise were in top gear. Sheriff directed state chairmen of the PDP to send to the party secretariat the lists of all statutory delegates to the convention on or before April 27. He added that the National Executive Committee (NEC) would hold on May 3. Dr. Jonathan, who spoke through his media aide, Ikechukwu Eze, dismissed Sheriff’s allegation that he collected N50 million from Wike.  “I don’t think anybody will believe that Jonathan collected money from anybody to organise the meeting. It was out of his genuine concern to bring peace to the party. “

     

  • PDP vice chairmen back Buhari’s anti- graft war

    PDP vice chairmen back Buhari’s anti- graft war

    The National Vice Chairmen of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have expressed support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti corruption war.

    The party chiefs have also dissociated themselves from some prominent members indicted in the $2.1 billion arms scandal perpetrated under the last administration.

    A number of PDP leading lights, including the immediate past National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, are standing trial for their alleged roles in the scandal.

    At a meeting held in Abuja on Tuesday, the vice chairmen agreed that the country’s economic growth could be stunted if corruption is not eradicated.

    In a communiqué signed by PDP Vice Chairman (South-south) zone, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, the party chiefs dissociated the party from any corrupt practices while it was in power.

    “The body notes with great concern the various allegations and charges against some PDP members that served in the previous government.

    “Even as these allegations and charges are yet to be proven, we call on the President to also investigate some of his serving ministers and associates that even more grievous allegations have been leveled against,” the communiqué said.

    The vice chairmen warned that disciplinary action would be taken against any of the party members who gets convicted for corruption and that they would be sanctioned accordingly.

    Stating the party’s position on the ideals of its founding fathers, the vice chairmen insisted on the adherence to the rule of law in the process leading to the trial of the suspects in the arms cash scandal.

    They enjoined party members to remain resolute and await the pending repositioning of the PDP, “where square pegs will be placed in square holes and justice and equity will prevail.”

    “Furthermore we reaffirm that mediocres will no longer be allowed to govern the affairs of the party. Power will now be returned to the people at the grassroots.

    “We make bold to say that those who are corrupt have left the party and those who left are indisputably mercenaries and soldiers of fortune.

     

    “That in spite of having lost the presidential election the PDP remains the largest party in Nigeria and Africa and we intend to keep it so.

    “That the vast majority of PDP members at the grassroots are innocent and not corrupt and accordingly we frown at and reject the notion and tagging of the PDP as a corrupt party.

    “That Nigerians will realize in the very near future that the PDP remains the only viable choice for the unity and progress of Nigeria.”