Ogboru Did Not Collect N3b For Governorship Election— Delta APC Campaign Council

…Says Relationship With Uduaghan, Omo-Agege, Others Still Cordial

By Daniel Dafe

Gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Delta state, Olorogun Great Ogboru, has refuted rumours that he collected N3 billion for the governorship election in the state.

Ogboru who spoke through the Director of the Delta APC Campaign Organization, Mr. Zik Zulu Okafor, warned those spreading speculations that he was given the sum for the election to desist from such acts.

Zulu said since the party’s State Publicity Secretary, Barr Sylvester Imonima, has given a robust response to the peddlers of the allegations against his principal, “it would not have been necessary to further dignify the quislings behind this piece, but because of their attempt to mortify the person of Ogboru’s integrity, it became necessary to react so as to expose their diabolic intentions.”

Zulu said: “The author of the fictive press statement, Mr. Daniel Ekiugbo is a mock character and his so called Coalition of Delta APC Support Groups, a pseudo organization that exists nowhere in Delta, except in his bedroom and our investigation has revealed he is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party.

“He also worked for a leader of a factional Delta APC who unabashedly grovels to PDP government’s top hierarchy in Asaba with the treacherous agendum to defeat his own party at the governorship polls to stop Ogboru from becoming the governor of Delta State. And also alleges hostilities between Ogboru and some prominent APC leaders, including Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege and former governor, Dr, Emmanuel Uduaghan when their relationship is intact

“The inviolable truth is that these names he dropped were part and parcel of all APC Campaign Council meetings. Indeed Uduaghan was at Ogboru’s house several times to attend some meetings and for consultations. In the same manner, the governorship candidate had visited Uduaghan on many occasions at his residence in Warri and had met at several campaign venues.

“In the same spirit, Omo-Agege and Ogboru were united for APC political cause in Delta state before, during and after the elections. They campaigned jointly on many occasions and engaged in delightful, insightful and awe-inspiring dialogues on the promises and possibilities of Delta State under an APC government.

“They both agree that the disgraceful and felonious acts of PDP during the just concluded elections must be redressed and together they are working to retrieve the unalloyed mandate given to Ogboru by the good people of Delta state.

“The cynical quasi-coalition in their jaundiced views claimed that while PDP campaigned in all the nook and crannies of Delta, Ogboru refused to embark on intensive campaign. This is not only ludicrous but the height of absurdity in their fractured quest to deceive Deltans and indeed APC top hierarchy.

“The truth is that Ogboru’s campaign train touched every part of Delta state like never before and the turn-out at the campaign grounds were record shattering. Indeed the success of his campaign is unprecedented, as captured in his television promos for both the presidential and governorship elections on both Channels Television and local TV stations.

“The height of Ekiugbo and his coalition’s degeneracy and depravity is the assertion that Ogboru presented a budget of over N3 billion which was funded by his party, but Ogboru is not going to give any account to this apparition called coalition. Worse still, those that gave the Urhobo born business magnate money know his history and are almost certain that he would not spend the money given to him outside the purpose it was meant for.

“However, to put the records straight, Ogboru was not given N3 billion by the APC leadership for the elections. And we will not yield to the shenanigan of blackmailers by revealing the amount received here. Suffice to say that there was a template attached to the fund released for the elections and the man fondly called the Peoples General adhered strictly to this template.

“Every Local Government Area, LGA, was funded without exception. And to impishly suggest that commissioner positions were sold for N50 million in advance is to descend to the abyss of outrageous infamy. It simply underscores the small-mindedness of Ekiugbo and his ilk, and their intense ignorance of the nobility of character of the man they set out desperately to malign.

“This is a man who had almost single-handedly financed his elections since 2003 and had expended well over N5 Billion in the process. Yet his net worth today still stands in excess of N10.4 Billion. How could such a man descend to seek some paltry N50 million in advance from some imaginary Commissioners at a time that a good chunk of his campaign fund, for the very first time, was being provided by his party.

“Ekiugbo and his faceless coalition plus their sponsors finally betrayed the spur of their campaign of calumny when they urged the APC National Chairman and leaders not to give any federal political appointments to Ogboru and his supporters.

“This indeed is the crux of the matter, the object of their toxic press statement. The voodoo venture sponsored by these APC torn-coats and their PDP collaborators is to sustain a smear- campaign against Ogboru so that the APC top team would dump him like some hot potatoes.

“But Abuja understands this factory of tinkers and traitors. They will ignore and resist them, knowing they are totems of eerie culture and therefore focus their gaze on one critical and more profitable assignment- to retrieve the mandate of Delta people stolen by the PDP with the brazen aid of Ekiugbo’s Masters.”