BREAKING – Okowa in Secret Meeting with Ibori in London
The Delta State governor-elect Dr Ifeanyi Okowa is currently having a secret meeting with the former governor of Delta State Chief James Onanefe Ibori. Okowa stormed London last week with a strong entourage that included his deputy governor-elect, Hon Kingsley Burutu Otuaro, Erhiatake Ibori (Ibori’s daughter, who won Ethiope West Constituency seat in the Delta State House of Assembly elections on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party), the senator-elect Chief Ighoyota Amori and a few other heavy-weights in Okowa’s and Ibori’s teams.
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Xclusive Magazine gathered from very authentic source that one of the reasons for the meeting is to bring Ibori up to speed with the political decisions taken, preparatory to Okowa taking over from Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan on 29 May, and also to thank him for his support. From behind the prison walls in faraway London, Ibori was the main influence behind Okowa’s successful governorship bid, as he did deploy his political machinery in the State to deliver Okowa in the tough governorship primaries and the elections proper. Also, the billionaire Jide Omokore, Ibori’s friend and business partner, had invested heavily in Okowa’s election campaign on Ibori’s prompting.
Another reason for the highly coded meeting is to finalise the sharing of political offices in the State. A source within the inner circle of Delta State government revealed to Xclusive Magazine that a stakeholders meeting had already taken place in Asaba, where the sharing pattern of 100 political offices in the in-coming government, which include commissioners and aides, was mapped out and agreed.
The source further revealed that Chief Ibori being the main power block has been allocated the lion share of 40 political offices and the in-coming governor Okowa gets 30 offices. The remaining 30 positions have been divided among Governor Uduaghan who gets 15 offices, Otuaro has 10 offices and the State PDP given 5 offices. All parties to the allocation have agreed to consider adequate zone representation when further distributing their individual allocated positions.
We gathered that the on-going meeting with Ibori will take the Oghara high chief through these allocations, and the actual portfolios – who gets what office will be clearly spelt out to him. It is not expected that any changes will be made to the established sharing pattern, as Chief Ibori is being carried along at every stage of the office sharing agreement.
Looking at the sharing of these political spoils, what may surprise so many Deltans is the absence of Tompolo, who also contributed immensely to Okowa’s political success. But no need to worry about this because there is actually no omission. What we have referred to as Otuaro’s allocation is indeed a Tompolo/Otuaro allocation. It is common knowledge that Tompolo was very instrumental to Otuaro emerging as Okowa’s running mate, therefore, Tompolo’s share is attached to the deputy Governor,s allocation.
An important lesson to be learnt from the on-going Okowa’s secret meeting with Ibori in London is that Delta State is an extension of Ibori political family and it is impossible for now for any leader to emerge in Delta State without being neither a member of this political family nor an apostle of Ibori’s political philosophy.
It is this viewpoint that Chief Amori captures in his interview with the Vanguard Newspapers, when he describes Ibori as “a political rock of Gibraltar,” invoking the image of a larger-than-life individual.
He said: “Of course, you know we are all his political apostles, even though he is not around, the apostles are very much around and completely in-charge, it would be difficult, extremely difficult to displace this dynasty that has been properly established, laid on a solid foundation. He is a political rock of Gibraltar.
“The hand of Ibori is everywhere, his hand is in my victory, it is in Okowa’s victory, Nwaoboshi’s victory, his daughter’s victory, Igbuya’s victory, his hand is in the election of the members of the House of Assembly in the state and all of us in the National Assembly.”
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