OPINION: Okowa’s ‘Evil’ Against Agbor Recounted

By Baasil Okoh

Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa always believed that his political career advancement depended on bringing Agbor down, that he cannot rise until he brings every Agbor person down, that no Agbor person be allowed to rise above and be ahead of him.

We recall that his determined commitment that no Agbor man should be allowed to rise politically is historical. We count Cairo Ojougbo, Ben Obuh, Tony Obuh, Dr. Philip Okwuada and many others. We recall the cataclysmic betrayal of Mr. Ben Obuh during the primary’s contest for the House of Representatives. Ben Obuh was Ifeanyi Okowa’s own appointed mentor at the University of Ibadan.

Okowa’s obsession that Agbor land and its people must not be developed ahead of Owa and that Agbor territory must be stolen or taken by Owa is a fact known to every conscious Agbor person. We know Okowa’s delusion that every Agbor person in PDP can only rise on his own terms and to his own approved position. This is a known fact within the circles of the PDP in Ika South LGA and only those who accept this slave position that is alien and forbidden in Agbor culture remain in PDP. Agbor people enslave others. They are never enslaved.

Most Agbor people do not know that the aspiration for the presidency for which Godwin Emefiele was harangued, harassed and vilified almost to the death, was financed and sponsored by Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, through the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba for no other reason than that he is an Agbor man.

So those you see in Agbor praising Okowa and rooting for his vice presidency are his acolytes, fellow betrayers, those who betray, sell Agbor short and undermine the progress of Agbor people, in order to gain the favours and monetary benefits from Okowa as reigning governor. Ifeanyi Okowa will do anything, breach every rule to stop an Agbor person from progress, but the elite of Agbor never realized this fact until recently.

The survival of the PDP stock in Agbor and their allegiance to Okowa has not been to any benefit to Agbor as their endearment to Okowa wholly depends on pulling Agbor down to gain favour from Okowa so that they can eat the crumbs falling from his table as governor.

Agbor people are strong, hardworking beyond compare, men and women, competitive, committed wherever and to whatever they engage themselves. Agbor people, one and all will always be bigger than Okowa’s schemes, even as governor.

In the course of the eight years of Okowa’s tenure as governor of Delta state, he has committed many acts of aggression against Agbor and its people. We list some of them hereunder. Please let everyone write his or her own experience in the comment section so that we can produce a truly historical document to show the people of Agbor for posterity.

1. Seizure of Owa Alidinma Land and the ongoing clandestine attempt to integrate Alidinma into Owa Kingdom in Ika Northeast LGA. It must be noted that Alidinma is not contiguous with and has no land or water border with Owa, Okowa’s native coterritory

Instead, Owa Alidinma, whose former name was “Owa Ajuga” and whose inhabitants are migrants into Agbor Alidinma, is on the border with Ukwuani and Ndokwa West LGA. “Owa” is the name Agbor gives migrant communities into it’s land. Owa itself is a migrant community to Agbor land. Okowa did not go to claim “Owa Abbi” in Ukwuani LGA or Owa community in Alihagu Agbor.

This matter instigated a case at the High Court Asaba, presided by Justice Daniel Maidoh: Basil Okoh Versus The Attorney General & Governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa.

The Obi of Owa Dr. Emmanuel Efeizomor applied to court to be joined in the case, describing himself as the “overlord of Alidinma”. Alidinma is located within what the official map of Delta State indicates as Agbor clan. Alidinma is an Agbor community and It’s boundaries are not contiguous with any Owa community. Three other communities are between Owa and Alidinma. Owa Alidinma is right at the other end of the border with Ukwuani and Ndokwa West LGA.

The attempt to effect a land grab at Alidinma was as a follow up to the discovery of Oil by Pan-Ocean Oil Company. Okowa used the false premise of the ownership of Owa Alidinma to change DESOPADEC laws and appoint an Owa man to the board, ignoring the owners of the locations of the oil wells, Agbor and Abavo.

2. Appointment of DESOPADEC Commissioner from Owa. Owa and the entire Ika Northeast LGA has no drop of oil in its territory.
3. ChangingDESOPADEC laws to make Owa enjoy the benefits of DESOPADEC while denying Agbor and Abavo the membership of DESOPADEC.
4. Payment of Oil Royalties to Obi of Owa and not to Obi of Abavo and Dein of Agbor.
5. Abandonment of modernization of School of Nursing, Agbor.
6. Deliberate and planned abandonment of General Hospital Agbor against the construction, unprecedented modernization and promotion of Mother and Child Hospital, Owa Alero, Okowa’s hometown.
7. The Agbor Hospital built over a hundred years ago and one of the biggest in the state is now a carcass with no personnel, no medical equipment or facilities and no drugs as Mother and Child hospital Owa Alero. Mother and Child Hospital is being planned as a reference hospital and centre of excellence to supersede Agbor Hospital and particularly the Teaching Hospital Oghara.
8. Sponsoring division in Ekuku Agbor and taking sides with the Uboh’s of Ekuku-Agbor.
9. The blatant unilateral removal of the major courses and programs from the University of Delta Agbor. Okowa denied Agbor the full fledged university it got by law just like Asaba and Ozoro and surreptitiously moved the major programs and facilities to Owa.
10. The diversion of Agbor Street and other construction project funds to construct streets and other projects in Owa.
11. A planned land grab in Emuhu boundary with Owa Alero and Owa Ekei and the ongoing attempt to seize the boundary lands of Emuhu.
12. The forced change of name of Agbor Railway Station at Oyibu.
13. The denial of Agbor the chairmanship of Ika South Local Government. Dictatorship and the outright refusal of democratic practices in Ika South.
14. Refusal of the PDP House of Reps. ticket to any Agbor candidate for four consecutive terms. Victor Nwokolo, Okowa’s principal enforcer from Igbodo in Ika Northeast has been trampling on the agreed rotation of representation through the sponsorship of Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa. The protest by PDP members in Ika South LGA is interpreted as disloyalty to Okowa.
15. Planned destruction of the night businesses at Agbor, particularly Uromi junction, because of the kidnap of his father. (Imposition of curfew). Uromi junction used to be a 24 hour transport hub to major cities in the north, east and the west.
16. The murder of Arthur Agbe in Owa and the unending attempt to cover the murder. There has been no one taken to trial.
17. The destruction of the public water supply infrastructure in Agbor as Commissioner for Water Resources in 2003. Public water supply in Agbor had been functioning since the 1930’s.
18. Agborn Station. The unending effort to change the name of the station.
19. Okowa’s ongoing ploy to install an Abavo man in Labour Party into the Delta House of Assembly against the peaceful coexistence between Agbor and Abavo is his latest gambit. Okowa even in his ongoing travail in a sinking PDP is still engaged in anti-party activities and is determined that Agbor will not make political progress.

Okowa’s fear of and hatred for Agbor is palpable and embedded in his genes. But people who hate Agbor unjustly suffer the consequences of their own plans and evil intentions for Agbor and its people.

The Agbor politician making broadcast now to Agbor people to vote for Okowa is the leader of Agbor lackeys working for Okowa to keep Agbor land and its people down. He has no credibility anymore in Agbor. He is working to endear himself to Okowa as he has been muzzled and only kept as a noisy megaphone by Okowa’s government.

Okoh can be reached via @basilokoh.