That Fake Forensic Report On Oborevwori’s Credentials

News of a supposedly leaked police forensic report on the certificates of People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Gubernatorial Candidate for Delta State, Chief Sheriff Oborevwori, did not really come to me as a surprise.

My take is that Oborevwori’s traducers, David Edevbie and his cohorts, are jittery that the completely indefensible judgement they obtained at the Federal High Court is about to be overturned, hence their desperation to intimidate, arm twist and blackmail the Court of Appeal to dance to their tune.

Apparently realizing they are about to lose at the Court of Appeal, Edevbie and co have resorted to the most execrable subterfuge of creating a wholly phantom brother for Oborevwori, someone they say is the true “Francis Oborevwori”, whom they claim to be the actual owner of the certificates he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, according to their fake, dubious and absolutely laughable forensic report!

Forensic Report On Oborevwori: The Grassroot Report

Everyone who knows Sheriff Oborevwori down to his father’s house knows that his name is “Francis”, just as everyone who knows me to my father’s house knows my name is “Michael”. There is absolutely no other “Francis” in the entire Oborevwori family – not even a cousin, uncle or aunt that I am aware of! Everyone in Osubi in Okpe Kingdom – if not everyone in Effurun and Warri, as well – knows that when the Osubi Airport was being built by Shell Petroleum Development Company, Sheriff, who was then chairman of Osubi development committee, had a company called Sheriff Frank, which unless I’m mistaken, executed a water project somewhere in the community.

Every Urhobo man knows that it is practically impossible for two Urhobos to have three identical names – it is even extremely rare for just two of their names to coincide! Thus, for instance, you cannot have two James Onanefe Iboris, and absolutely everyone in Urhoboland knows that!

The desperation with which this matter is being pursued by those behind David Edevbie verges on the abominable. Conjuring up an entirely fictitious and nonexistent brother for Sheriff Oborevwori in this diabolical bid to steal his mandate is shameful enough. Manufacturing a fake son out of thin air for his father is the height of disrespect and is considered an abomination anywhere in Delta State.

James Ibori had eight years as Governor of Delta and yet another eight years through his brother Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, his imposed successor. That amounts to four terms in office and sixteen straight years of overlordship over a state that belongs to all of us.

It is most unconscionably greedy for Ibori to insist on another potential eight years which would then cumulatively amount to six terms and twenty four years of suzerainty over our state! Is Delta State Ibori’s father’s property?

If he could insist on determining his successor and ended up imposing his brother on the rest of us, why won’t he concede to Governor Okowa that same right to determine his successor, more so when Okowa and Oborevwori have no family bonds whatsoever?

Everyone who knows his political onions in Delta knows how Okowa had to fight his way against all manner of obstacles and frustrations orchestrated by Governor Uduaghan. It is not as if Okowa was ever really Ibori’s choice – Ibori only started supporting him after Okowa had won the primary on his own and against Edevbie, clearly Ibori’s preferred choice at the time!

Why should Sheriff who won his primary be the one to quit and yield to an Edevbie who woefully lost to him and who no one really even likes in Delta State, anyway?

What possible justification might Ibori be able to provide for his insistence on Edevbie, a man without friends or fans and who has never helped anyone in Delta? And, come to think of it, is Oborevwori, himself, not also an original Ibori loyalist, after all? How many politicians of note, be it in PDP or the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Delta do not have one association or the other with Ibori?

Two of your sons go into a contest and you then tell the one who emerged victorious to stepdown for the other? What is that supposed to mean? Are you God?

There is absolutely nothing strange, remotely suspicious or howsoever dubious about Sheriff Oborevwori’s credentials. Such differences in names are common in the certificates of numberless people across this country and the certificates they present are nevertheless genuine and actually belong to them. Such persons include lawyers and even judges, for that matter!

Absolutely every name on Oborevwori’s credentials is actually his name and can be accounted for. I have a brother whose mother named him “Felix”. Our father named him “Luke”. His mother also gave him “Ojiromu” as his Okpe name. Everyone from his mother’s side calls him “Ojiromu”.

Everyone in my father’s family calls him “Luke”. Everyone who knows him outside calls him “Luke Onokpasa”. Only a handful of us know his name is also “Felix”. Many of our brothers and sisters do not even know this! These things are so common that it is astonishing that anyone, much less a court, would be inclined to cast aspersions on someone’s credentials on that basis alone!

Forensic Report On Oborevwori: The Legal Issue

I am not a member of the PDP and my support remains steadfast with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima. Nevertheless, I am a lawyer and the legal profession is my core and primary constituency. I never ever joke with matters of law neither will I repudiate clear truths and the position of the law, pertaining thereto, on the basis of political preferences.

Sheriff Oborevwori has absolutely no case to answer and he is the bonafide candidate of the PDP for the 2023 election. Indeed, for me, as a man of faith, the present travails of Oborevwori rather indicate that whatever his detractors throw at him, he will still become their Governor at the end of the day.

I just hope he and his supporters do not lose faith in the face of the machinations and rascalities of people who really have no moral basis for being in the politics of our state, or, indeed, anywhere else, anymore.

If I were in the shoes of Oborevwori and his supporters, it is actually the very insolence, arrogance and sense of entitlement of Edevbie and his cohorts, who feel the Governorship of Delta is their personal property that would reinforce my trust in God and ensure I stayed the course right into Government House, Asaba. Frankly, he should just soldier on, confident that what he will be, he will still be by the grace of God.

Onokpasa, a lawyer, writes from Warri.

Send Us A Press Statement Advertise With Us Contact Us

 And For More Nigerian News Visit GWG.NG