| Urhobo
Historical Society |
Culled
from:
Sunday,
24 April 2011
Dr.
Emmanuel Uduaghan
WHY
WE MAY NOT SUPPORT DR. EMMANUEL EWETA UDUAGHAN IN THE
DELTA STATE GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION
By
Delta
State Elders, Leaders and Stakeholders Forum
5
Swamp Road,GRA
Warri
Delta
State
We
draw the attention of our most
benevolent President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and leader of
our
ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the state of the
party in
Delta State and the corrupt practices of Dr. Uduaghan
and his cohorts, who see the government as a vehicle to loot and
entrench
undemocratic tendencies. Our dear Mr. President, listed below are some of the reasons why our faction of PDP in
Delta
State may not support Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan
in the
gubernatorial election which is taking place on Tuesday 26th April,
2011.
We
also need to save our party and
country from local and international embarrassment if our crusade
against
corruption must be taken seriously because all hands must be on deck to
assist
you to save Nigeria from both economic and political problems it
presently
faces. We need to save the party from the wrong perception of the
public in Delta
state that the PDP is a political party of corrupt gang of conspirators
desirous of milking the state and impoverishing the very people it was
supposed
to uplift.
We
need to save the party from the
grip of corrupt Ibori-Uduaghan dynasty,
restore the
original dream of the founding fathers of our great party by returning
the
party back to the people through internal democracy, free and fair
elections.
This cannot be done if Dr. Emmanuel E. Uduaghan
who
was disqualified in 2007 by Alhaji Hassan Adamu (Wakilu
Adamawa) Screening
Committee in Port Harcourt before he miraculously got a reprieve from
our Party
through James Ibori�s influence who is his
1st
Cousin.
1. He
was imposed on us by his
younger first cousin and former governor of Delta State Chief James Ibori for 8 years to deliberately cover their
misdeeds that
is, corrupt practices and looting of Delta State treasury by two of
them as
former governor of Delta State and as secretary of Delta State
government, a
position held by Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan
between 2003
and 2007. A job he has effectively carried out throughout the period as
governor of Delta State and at this juncture, we would like to quote
one
example of such cover up.
HOW
DR. EMMANUEL EWETA UDUAGHAN
COVER JAMES IBORI BECAUSE HE IS AN ACCOMPLICE
The
injunction granted by Justice Okeke the
Elder sister of Ibori�s
Mistress Mrs. Udoamaka Okoronkwo
who is now serving 5 years jail term in London.
Dr.
Emmanuel Uduaghan
was the Chief Executive of Delta state and custodian of the revenue of
Delta State . Is it not ridiculous and
improper for the chief
executive of Delta State to obtain an injunction from the Federal High
Court,
Benin City, that Chief James Ibori should
not be
arrested or prosecuted by EFCC for the over 170 criminal charges
against him
that have been compiled by EFCC against Ibori
and
that EFCC should not be allowed to have access to Delta State
Government
records on revenue and expenditure of Delta State? Incidentally, Dr.
Emmanuel Uduaghan saw to it that the
motion papers were assigned to
Justice, Mrs. Okeke, elder sister of Mrs. Udoamaka. The maiden name of the two sisters is Onuigbo of Anambra
state. When
this scandalous actions burst into the open and the members of the
delegation
of London metropolitan police were being expected in Nigeria
, the then Attorney- General, Michael Aondoakaa
was directed to file a motion in the court to vacate the obnoxious
injunction.
2.
Dr. E.E. Uduaghan
has been running a corrupt government since he took over from his
cousin James Ibori on May 29, 2007.
Identified cases of his corrupt
government are listed hereunder.
3.
OUR EXCLUSION FROM THE PARTY
ACTIVITIES
We
are members and infact some of us are
founding members of PDP and we have
participated in all PDP activities from 1999 to 2008. But in the
position of
Dr. E.E Uduaghan as governor of Delta
State, they
have excluded majority of PDP members in Delta State from participating
in the
affairs or activities of the party illegally constituted an executive
which
culminated in our establishing a parallel executive under the
chairmanship of
Maj. Gen. Onyekweli (rtd),
who
has
been replaced by Col. Eboma (rtd). Could you imagine a situation whereby our
faction was
completely kept out from the recent convention in Abuja where the
presidential
primaries was held. For instance, our
leader Chief Dr.
E.K. Clark OFR, CON and many other prominent members of the party were
excluded
from the presidential primaries, and were therefore not allowed to cast
their
votes at the primary for Mr. President despite their total commitment
to Mr.
President.
Another
unfortunate
action by Dr.
E.E Uduaghan led PDP faction, all our
members
totaling about thirty (30) who bought PDP forms to contest various
position
ranging from Governor to House of Assembly were denied participation in
the so
called primaries conducted by Dr. E.E Uduaghan
faction of the party. Similarly, as it was in the case of Ogun
State , we had no alternative than to hold a
parallel
primary, which was also monitored by officials from the National
Secretariat of
PDP, INEC officials, security agents and the press. The result of the
primaries
was submitted to the acting chairman of the party Dr. Bello Mohammed Haliru, but no action was taken as was done in
other states
where parallel primaries were held.
Prof.
Saliba
Mukoro a gubernatorial aspirant who was
denied
participation in the governorship primaries held in Asaba
allegedly won by Dr. Uduaghan. Prof. Saliba Mukoro has
gone to court
to challenge his exclusion and the case which was instituted in Abuja
Federal
High Court has been transferred to Federal High Court Asaba
and is still pending in court. Does Dr. Uduaghan
has any moral justification to ask for our
support.
4.
Dr. Emmanuel Udughan
recently held lavish press interview as guest of several national
dailies in
which he categorically denied his corrupt practices and that he was
never
indicted by a London Court during the trial of his cousin Mrs. Christy Omatie Ibie Ibori,
Udoamaka Okoronkwo
and his
cousin�s wife Mrs. Theresa Nkoyo Ibori
and sadly enough, the three of them have been convicted and sentenced
to Five
(5) years imprisonment each at the London Court. He accused us of
framing or
making allegations against him mutilating fact of his indictment by the
London Court . He further accused us of
fabricating false report to
Saharareporters. At this juncture, we
reproduce
hereunder a recent Saharareports which infact has nothing to do with us and we
challenged him to
comment on the falsity Saharareport.
��Sahara
reporters
has obtained
official document of the EFCC which indicate that deposed Governor
Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State was
deeply involved in the illicit
transfer of state funds to former governor James Ibori,
his
wife,
mistress and other associates. Some of the documents in our
possession
reveal that Mr. Uduaghan who is Ibori�s
cousin ordered the payment of about N2 billion in ��unconventional
transactions�� between Delta State government and Udoamaka
Okoronkwo, Mr. Ibori�s
Mistress who is serving a 5-year imprisonment in the UK following her
conviction on money laundering charges. The EFCC record shows that the
transaction took place when Uduaghan was
secretary to
the Delta State government during Mr. Ibori�s
governorship. The deals have reflected in various EFCC files.
Many
of these payments involved the
companies SAGICON LTD., RIVBBED LTD., and SAAGARIS PROPERTIES LTD., all
controlled by Udoamaka Okoronkwo.
The documents show that in some instances, funds were deposited
directly into
Ms. Okoronkwo�s individual account in Nigeria . Law enforcement agents in Nigeria and
the UK told
Sahara reporters that much of the funds may eventually have been
laundered into
the UK and other foreign countries where Ibori
and
his cohorts maintain lavish lifestyles.
One
EFCC witness described payments
to Okoronkwo�s companies as outside any
payment due
for genuine contracts (file p.21). Yet another said that some of the
payments
related to the Delta State Polytechnics Projects, control of which was
wrested
from the State Ministry of Education and placed under a special
committee of
which Uduaghan was a member (file p.80).
In her own
statement to EFCC Okoronkwo several
bullet-proof
Range Rovers purchased from high Protection Company in United State . During his tenure as secretary to the
State
Government, Uduaghan also oversaw and
directly
ordered distribution of huge amounts of security vote funds. Witness
statements
and financial documentation in the EFCC files shows that these payments
include:
At
least N1.23 billion funneled
through BAINENOX LTD. and MER ENGINEERING NIG. LTD. companies
controlled by Ibori and close family
members as part of an illicit
scheme;
At
least N383 million laundered over
2years through PRIME CHAMBERS LTD., a Nigeria company owned by Prof.
Amos Utuama former Attorney General and
Justice Commissioner
under Ibori. Prof. Utuama
was the deputy governor in Uduaghan�s
deposed
government. Uduaghan�s own statement to
EFCC
investigators (file p.166f) also details how he, as SSG oversaw the
transfer of
billions in security funds to violent actors in Delta State .
A partial breakdown showed the following:
An
average of N100 million per month
in operational expenses was paid to the Joint Task Force (JTF). Much of
this
money, Uduaghan stated was paid over the
counter in
cash because the military officers who reportedly received it did not
want the
money to pass through a bank account;
Payment
to
various youth and elders
who supply information and sometimes go to the communities to carry out
activities that will bring peaceful co-existence;
(1)
Payment for information
gathering and logistics to get hostages freed;
(2)
Payment for pipeline
surveillance and prevention of pipeline vandalization
along with other security activities that will protect the oil
installation;
(3)
Ad-hoc payments to quell
security emergencies. For instance, on October 5, 2004, Uduaghan
arranged a cash payment of N700 million to unknown beneficiaries. On
March 14,
2005, he again effected the transfer of N950 million to equally unknown
recipients.
The
documents indicate that Mr. Uduaghan was
interrogated by the EFCC and made to write
statements in handwriting on February 26, 2006. Asked about the US
based
brother Victor Uduaghan who is a medical
doctor and
who allegedly acted as money laundering front for Mr. Ibori,
Emmanuel Uduaghan, denied that he had
anything to do
with his brother. The EFCC also interrogated Vincent Uduaghan,
described as contractor to Delta State government and another brother
of Mr. Uduaghan as part of the wider Ibori
investigation.
Several
sources
within Delta State
and Judiciary told Sahara reporters that Emmanuel Uduaghan
played a prominent role, albeit behind the scenes, to corruptly secure
the
quashing of the 170 count charge proffered by the EFCC against Ibori in 2009. He used Delta State funds to set
up a
kangaroo court in Asaba, the State
Capital. Dr. Uduaghan whose governorship
was recently invalidated by
Nigerian appellate court, bought a building from Raymond Guana,
Delta�s commissioner for Lands and Survey, and donated the building to
serve as
the Federal High Court. Mr. Guana had
served as then
Governor Ibori�s Special Adviser on local
governments��
5. We
also want to sight some other
cases of corruption against Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan.
SOME
OTHER CASES OF CORRUPTION
AGAINST DR. E. E. UDUAGHAN
Among
the revelation in the
prosecution�s summation in the London Court is that the State Governor,
Dr.
Emmanuel Uduaghan, who was Secretary to
the state
government of James Ibori personally
authorized payments that were made to Christine Ibie-Ibori,
Elder
sister
to Ibori and Uduaghan�s
cousin.Those payments, included �69,000 and
another
�79,000. Reference was also made to N39 million in cash, which was
delivered to
her in two boxes. A company called KOLN was used as a vehicle to
transfer funds
out of Nigeria for the benefit of Chief Ibori�s
sister and paid into her account.
Investigators
had
accused Governor
Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan,
who
prior
to 2007 served as Secretary to the State Government (SSG) of
facilitating the illicit deals. Most of the contracts that went to one
of Ibori�s front companies � Sagicom,
owned by Christine Omatie Ibori-Ibie,
Rivbed or Sigares
� were
heavily over-inflated. Prosecutors in London revealed that most of the
contracts were for N1.8 billion or above, including the supply of fine
wines
and beverages.
THE
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MRS. CHRISTINE IBORI IBIE, MR.
VINCENT
UDUAGHAN
AND MR. GEORGE
OROGUN
Mrs.
Christine Omatie
Ibori-Ibie is the elder sister of the
former governor
of Delta State Chief James Onanefe Ibori (same parents) and 1st Cousin of the Dr.
Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan
i.e. Uduaghan�s father and James Ibori
and Ibie�s mother are the same parent
��UDUAGHAN�� by
name and the same grand parents.
Mr.
Vincent Uduaghan
is the younger brother of Governor Dr. Emmanuel E. Uduaghan
and 1st Cousin of Mrs. Christine Omatie Ibori-Ibie. While Mr.
George Orogun was an employee in Oceanic
Bank Plc. He was
the Head of the Operations of the bank in Delta State
,
but now seconded to Delta state government as Commissioner for Finance
in Dr.
Emmanuel E. Uduaghan�s administration.
Most
of the illegal transactions for
which Mrs. Christine Ibori-Ibie was
convicted and sentenced
to 5 years imprisonment by a London Court, were jointly transacted or
carried
out between her and her cousin Mr. Vincent Uduaghan.
Mr.
Vincent
Uduaghan is moving freely in
Nigeria
while his accomplices had been jailed for the same offence committed.
We re-emphasise
that Mr. George Orogun who was also
involved in the
illegal transactions as the Bank Manager in Oceanic Bank at the time,
is now
the Commissioner for Finance in Delta State in Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan,
effectively giving cover to the illegal transactions of Chief James Ibori administration, what a shady deal.
At
this juncture, it may be
necessary to name some of the transactions leading to money laundering
for
which Mrs. Christine Omatie Ibori-Ibie
was charged to court in London . These
contracts were
originally awarded to Onovin (Vincent Uduaghan�s Company).
(i)
Purchasing and Installation of Tartan/Polythene tracks at Warri
Township
Stadium.
(ii)
Purchase and supply of sporting
equipments courtesy of the Ministry of Sports in Delta State
.
(iii)
Purchase and Installation of
Tartan Tracks for Oghara Mini stadium
(iv)
Repairs and
maintenance of Commissioners�
quarters
(v)
Construction of Swimming Pool
for School of Physical Education, Mosogar
etc.
The
total amount involved in these
transaction alone was N304,000,000.00 (Three
Hundred
and Four Million Naira) for which Mrs. Christine Ibori-Ibie
was paid for allegedly assisted in sourcing for the equipments which
the Delta
State government paid for in collaboration with her Cousin Mr. Vincent Uduaghan through his brother Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan as Secretary to the State Government in
Delta
State.
HOW
DR. EMMANUEL EWETA UDUAGHAN ALSO
USED THE FOLLOWING CONTRACTORS TO LOOTS BILLIONS OF NAIRA IN DELTA STATE
Efe Osuwa, Uche
Okpunor, Victor Ochei,
Levant,
Setraco, Southgate and ULO named in the
Multi-Billion Naira Contract Scam.
There
is massive looting of Delta
State resources by unscrupulous and rogue contractors running into
billions of
naira. Pointblanknews.com sources in Asaba
hinted
that some of those very notorious ones who get most of the juicy
contracts, are
Southgate owned by Efe Osuwa,
Uche Okpunor�s
ULO
Construction, Setraco, Levant Construction
and Davno�s run by a member of the Delta
State House of
Assembly, Victor Ochei.
What
worries observers is why some
of this rogue contractors still collect billions from State Officials
even when
it is evident they have not delivered.
According
to
our investigations, Okponor ULO was awareded the
multi billion naira airport project in 2008 by the Governor Uduaghan
administration. The initial sum was about N9biilion Naira which was
paid in
full.
ULO
moved to site, did some shoddy
job, and abandoned the project. But, to the chagrin of observers, the
state did
an up-ward review of the project from N9billion Naira to N18billion
naira.
Today, even at that, Okpunor pocketed the
cash and
abandoned it again.
Pointblanknews.com
learnt
that Okpunor was a cronie
of former
governorship aspirant Peter Okocha and
lackey of
ex-governor James Ibori who threw juicy
contract his
way when he held sway in Delta.
Okpunor,
according to sources, has become so wealthy at the expense
of Delta people. He owns the multi billion naira St. Luke Hospital, ULO
suites
worth hundreds of millions and a massive mansion worth hundred
of million in Asokoro, Abuja
.
Osuwa Southgate, got over N250million
and varnished. The project was for the supply of portable machines used
to
retail recharged cards. This was supposed to be shared to selected
youths as part
of Uduaghan�s Youth Empowerment Program.
The jobless
youth were supposed to get the machines, get some take off grants of N30,000 each, and make returns after profit.
Setraco got
N9billion from one phase of Ughelli dualisation
project, while Levants, got N6billion for
the Koko dualisation project. Both firms
have abandoned the projects
long time ago. Ochei used Davnoj
to rip the State of N2billion under the pretext of providing street
lights in
few places and for supply of Christmas decorations, till date Davnoj have not delivered a single item. One
member of the
Delta State house of Assembly, Daniel Mayuku
has been
at war with these slimy contractors and their cronies in government. Mayuku who is chairman, appropriation committee
has done
all he could to block loopholes but failed.
OGHARA
IPP
POWER PROJECT
A
contract for the IPP Project Oghara was
awarded at the cost of N27 Billion 2years ago to
the company owned by the same Hon. Ochei a
present
member of the Delta State House of Assembly without due process. More
than N14
Billion had been paid to the contractor. The site at Oghara
as at today is as bushy as a forest with a broken sign board to
identify the
site. No civil and mechanical work had been carried out at the site. As
a
result of series of petitions to EFCC from abroad and within, a full
investigation of this dubious project has been completed by the EFCC
and the
report is ready in the commission.
THE
USE OF MEMBERS OF IBORI-UDUAGHAN
FAMILY IN SIPHONING DELTA STATE FUNDS
This
is another siphoning drain to
loot Delta state funds rather than develop the state. Other projects
other than
this like the Asaba and Warri Street
lights and the
bogus Effurun Round-about, are
other draining pipes of Dr. E.E. Uduaghan.
The street
light is been sustained at the cost of N80 million per month for the
supply of
diesel and oil and this money is paid to Dr. Uduaghan�s
wife Mrs Sheila Roli
Uduaghan who runs this project. Also the
Chairman of the
Delta State Teaching Hospital, Oghara,
Prof. Otubu who is a cousin to James Ibori
and Dr. Uduaghan had been petitioned to
the EFCC of
given contract worth N500 million without recourse to Board approval.
Furthermore, Terry Otubu the brother of
Prof. Otubu who are
both cousins of Dr. Uduaghan is in charge
of buying and supplying Delta State
Government vehicles and insuring of Government properties.
Today,
the
Delta State Government have no
Commissioner for Sports but the Chairman of the
Delta State Sports Council runs the Sports Ministry for Dr. E.E. Uduaghan. Again, Mr. Pinnick
Amaju the Chairman of the State�s sport
commission is the
immediate younger brother of Dr. Uduaghan�s
wife �
Sheila Roli Uduaghan.
It
is
clear here that Uduaghan uses various
fronts
including aides, relations, brothers, wife and in-laws to siphon the
resources
of the state.
To
further show the level of
involvement of the former SSG Dr. E.E. Uduaghan
during Ibori administration in his various
corrupt
practices, all payments were effected by
Government
officials � Mr. Isiayei and Oghoro
with directives from the Permanent Secretary, Government House, Mrs.
P.O. Ikomi and the Secretary to the State
Government, Dr.
Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan.
The
payments
were in the region of N100 million, and N250 million as
security
payments. From statements and evidence given by some officials of
Government
House, the sum of N252 million cheque
was released and that he does not know the purpose for which it was
released.
The SSG Dr. E.E. Uduaghan will know the
purpose. But
physically, he did not cash the N252 million but the directive to
disburse was
from SSG Dr. Emmanuel E. Uduaghan who was
the
controller.
Finally,
we
know Mr. President and
Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan very well and because of his
incorruptibility,
he will never condone any case of corruption, no matter the status of
the
person involved. Our dear Mr. President, these are some of the reasons
why our
faction of PDP in Delta State will not support Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan
in the gubernatorial election which is taking place on Tuesday 26th
April,
2011.
Kindly
accept
the assurances of my
highest consideration and personal esteem.