Okowa: Why I Turned Down Ibori’s Last-Minute Peace Offer

The immediate past governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa has opened up on the issues between him and his predecessor, Chief James Ibori over the candidature of Chief Sheriff Oborevwori, saying that Ibori’s last-minute effort to compromise came rather too late in the day.

Speaking in an interview, Okowa said he strongly objected to Ibori’s choice of David Edevbie because of the latter’s objection to zoning in 2015 and saw no reason why he, Edevbie should benefit from what he objected to. Even more, Okowa disclosed how he travelled in 2014  to Lagos from Abuja to solicit Edevbie’s support for his 2015 bid only for him to discover that Edevbie after promising turned out to be his strongest challenger.

Okowa spoke in a rare interview to a select group of senior journalists hours before he stepped down as governor said that by the time Ibori agreed for talks that it was already too late given that it was just 12 days to the primaries when he, Okowa had already committed himself to Oborevwori.

Asked on his relationship with Ibori, Okowa said:

“I don’t like to talk about it but obviously there’s no doubt that we didn’t work together. The former governor worked for the APC in the governorship, we went into the primaries not agreeing on the same candidate, we talked about it but he did not want to shift grounds on his candidate, that’s the truth and I did not agree with that candidate for basic reasons which I made clear enough to him and also to his own candidate.

“I did not hide it, till tomorrow I speak about it in truth not because I thought I was a god that needed to install somebody. David (Edevbie) is my friend. We were with the former governor in his tenure together as commissioners but in 2014 when it became obvious that it was the turn of the Delta North, Delta Central and Delta South had had their turns and I heard that David was going to run and he was indicating interest.

“I went from Abuja with three of my friends to visit him in Lagos and I said ‘David, please, it’s only fair, I know that there are so many people competing but I’m coming to you as a friend. It will not be fair if you run. Gov James Ibori has been there Gov Uduaghan has been there, it’s obviously the turn of the Delta north, why don’t you allow us to have our space so that we can all be said to be part of the state.

Thereafter we can all work for you to become governor’

“He came to meet me in the hotel even though I wanted to meet him in his home. It was a one and a half hour meeting and at the end he said ‘I will not run anymore, I will support you’. I thanked him and left back to Abuja and we continued and I found that because Delta North people had felt it was their turn because that was the impression we were given, there were so many of us in the race, about 15 of us.

“And then suddenly, next thing we heard was that they had endorsed David but this same David had committed himself to me so we went into the race, very tough race but God enabled me to win. I didn’t take it strongly, we had all worked together and I won the election and he became my commissioner for finance.

“So in the second year I started hearing that he was holding meetings in Lagos and occasionally in Benin and other places where they were already prepping him to be governor without anybody discussing with me and that meeting continued.

“In the first instance, he did not want the zoning to Delta North so if the zoning was going to continue, he’s my friend but he shouldn’t be the one to benefit from the zoning he did not want. Because then without mincing words, I got a delegation from the Ijaws who backed me and said ‘because of what the Delta central did this to you, why would we not do it to them, why don’t we support somebody from somewhere else’ and I saw that was politics.

“Me I believe in what is just and I told them outrightly it will be difficult to do what you asked for because if God eventually enabled me to be governor to complete this tripod, it’s best for us to allow God’s will to continue.

“It’s very unfortunate, I thank you for what you did for me but luckily even as they worked for me, I never made a commitment that I will make anybody governor because I’m careful in what I do so it will be difficult for me to support someone outside central but my only mindset is that somebody who did not believe in the zoning cannot be the one to benefit from it and I made it clear to the former governor.

“That’s how we continued. So the only time he wanted us to sit down to discuss it was about 12 days to the election primaries when he wanted us to come up with a new candidate but that time I had already started supporting him (Sheriff Oborevwori). I told him sir, I though we discussed initially and you were not ready to move from where you stood, it was just this person and nobody else, it will be difficult for me a few days to the primaries to tell the person I am supporting, stop I am no longer supporting you. I am not used to that kind of politics in my life. I don’t know what the people will call me.

“And you know David came to me and I told him how you made a commitment to me (2014) and you didn’t return to me only to see you as my strongest contender as we moved into the primaries! If there was no conversation, no visit, I wouldn’t have…but we sat together and you made a commitment and you just turned round without recourse to me. I think he just felt that it was victory already for him, so there was no point talking to me. But it was not about me, it was about Delta North people. Today, everybody feels, we are all part of the system because everybody has been part of the process.”

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