Okowa: Latimore Makes U-Turn, Pulls Down Post

By Daniel Dafe

Hours after Executive Assistant to Delta State Governor on Communications, Olorogun (Barr) Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe, JP took to Facebook to ventilate his anger, saying Okowa is influenced by tribal bigots, schemers to ignore his huge efforts to his adminstration, the governor’s aide has made a u-turn and hopes that his demands will be met.

Latimore who on Sunday said that he had an exclusive interview with a national radio in Lagos on Sunday morning, 26th December, had said that resigning his appointment as Eacgovdelta will definitely come last if Okowa failed to do the needful by attending to his little and reasonable official requests tabled before the governor and the state government, wherein he copied appropriate senior government officials.

He alleged that the same envious tribal bigots senior government officials within the system prevented media aides of the governor from attending the State Government sponsored capacity building programme, Delcom 2021 organised by the office of EACGOVDELTA, adding that they refused to slow down in their collective efforts to silence him in Okowa administration.

He added: “My boss, His Excellency the governor of Delta State is a good man, but there are some envious and crooked tribal bigots around him, influencing his actions and inactions towards me despite the huge efforts that I have made to safeguard the media space for government and the governor through regular deployment of strategic political communication and information management strategies in the past five years.

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“As an active Eacgov and senior government official, I have no official car, no Secretary and no media assistants attached to my office, no driver. And no provision in my package to employ personal assistant, and I have to do everything all by myself but my other colleagues enjoys all of these facilities.

“Two streets in my town of Kokori; Okpe street and Agbonmeyerin Street, which my boss, the governor agreed to construct and rehabilitate. The Scope for the roads have been done by Ministry of Works and long submitted for approval but all efforts made to commence work failed but other roads projects were approved and work have since commenced in other districts.

“The Okpe street and Agbonmiyerin streets are very strategic in Kokori Town and my people will be very happy that in my time as EACGOVDELTA and in Okows’s tenure, these two popular streets we tired, and the credit will go to the governor; but the file has been kept in view and I am not happy about it because I am aware of other developments elsewhere via some other appointees in the state. What is good for the goose is also good for the gander.

“I introduced the Delta State Communication Capacity Building Workshop, (Delcom) to further train media appointees of government, media partners in the state, social media influencers and bloggers, and this strategic effort had converted over three hundred persons to support and project government programmes and achievements in the media space and still counting. I had to bring on board some notable media persons from the opposition parties to assist in projecting Okowa administration and the government.

“I have been working under strange conditions which I do not want to mention here, and majority of the people believe that the governor has been funding my office heavily with millions of Naira, whereas the reverse is the case. I am really tired of peanuts here and there that won’t reduce stress in my official duties.

“I do not want to speak negatively about a government I have laboured day and night to defend publicity, made enemies with people we had no personal misunderstanding except for doing my job to protect and sustain the integrity of the governor and government reputation, a rare loyalty feat that my colleagues could not offer the governor and the government.

“In all of these, I swallowed lots of insults and abuses from Okowa detractors and media team of the major opposition party, the APC, but my boss, the Governor, have not been able to find adequate time to do the needful by elevating my official status to balance the equation in line with the principles of equity, justice and good conscience.

“A good governor should necessarily be the governor for all Deltans in words, in actions and in actions. I have no doubts in my mind that governor Okowa will finish strong, but in finishing strong he would need to do adequate justice, and apply good conscience to all concerned.

“Resigning will be my last option and I pray and hope that the Holy Spirit and those who truly love the Governor as well as genuine Stakeholders in his administration will prevail on him to ignore the deceptive tactics of some tribal bigots and dirty schemers around him, and to use his God given Christian mind to positively consider my little and reasonable requests.”

But, Latimore in a Sunday evening post titled ‘Respect Is Reciprocal,’ said “I wish to deeply appreciate important personalities who called to show concern over my plight and their kind words.

“I can tell you for free that my boss, the Platinum Governor of Delta State, still have genuine senior government officials, friends and associates who truly love him; prominent among them are; Chief Gabriel OGBECHIE, Chairman/CEO of Rain Oil, Dr Kingsley Emu, Chief Economic Adviser to the Governor, Hon Charles Aniagwu, Honourable Commissioner for Information, Chairman and Director General of Asaba Capital Territory Development Agency; Chief Ighoyota Amori and Hon Evangelist Joan Mrakpor, First Member of Delta State Pilgrims and Welfare Board/Catholic Priest, Very Rev Fr. Chris EKABO, and many others.”

While appreciating those that called him over what he described as his “lingering plight”, he promised to take down the posts “and wait patiently for better days ahead in the coming days.”

At the time of filing this report, Latimore had taken down the post.