Kenneth Gbagi Met Sheriff In The Prison Yard

Basil Okoh

The sensational revelation by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) governorship candidate in Delta State, Chief Kenneth Gbagi during a TV interview that he met Sherriff in jail during a prison tour by the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria which he was chairman at the time, has changed the dynamics of the contest for governorship of Delta State in the coming 2023 election.

Kenneth Gbagi did not state the surname of the Sherriff he met in prison, perhaps to dodge the defamation laws. He did not also state the name or location of the prison he met Sherriff.

Again, he did not say whether Sherriff was in prison as an Awaiting Trial Man (ATM) or serving a sentence for manslaughter.

But he did say that Sherriff was seen in the prison yard “for manslaughter” and interacted with him in the prison yard.

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He revealed further that he made these information known to “Ifeanyi”, but again, did not tell us the surname of the “Ifeanyi” he reported the information to. The governor of Delta is named Ifeanyi but there are thousands of other Ifeanyi in Delta state. We can only make inferences here from the assertions he made as a follow-up.

“Ifeanyi” called Sherriff to ask if it was true that Gbagi met him doing time in prison. “Sherriff”, he asserted, called him back to beg him not to make the revelation public.

He closed the disclosures by threatening to reveal more when the campaign declares open.

Kenneth Gbagi knew that he was teasing his way into the public imagination on the matter of the governorship election and he was setting the agenda for discourse in the forthcoming campaign. He was wily while showing a clear understanding of the laws of defamation.

Kenneth Gbagi understands the power of kites and teasers in public communication. These serve to agitate and fire up curiosity in the intended public. He is an old horse in the bar and in the media circuit. He teased the Delta public, tickling our imagination with fluffy stuff. There really is no meat in his statements and nothing to hold him for. He flew a kite and threw a salacious bait to Sherriff.

The knucklehead interviewer could not ask follow up questions. A professional journalist would have gone for his balls on these revelations and not let go until he bites off some meat. But the interviewer was dazed and intimidated by the personality of Kenneth Gbagi.

The handlers and media wingmen of Sherriff Oborevwori swallowed the bait and immediately went off course on a self deprecating tangent. The frenzy to deny and defend played into the intent of Chief Kenneth Gbagi.

The claims made in the defense of Sherriff was wide off the mark and did not help his case. It was so evident that the defenders were not professionals and didn’t know the basic practices of public communication. The Nigerian media space has become a bazaar for fakers. Their response didn’t need a ten hour devotion to the dictionary, as they did.

All they needed to do was to put out a two paragraph post to say that the revelations by Kenneth Gbagi did not refer to their candidate. The second paragraph would just say that their candidate remains the popular choice of the voters of the state.

They would then leave the space for Kenneth Gbagi to double down and add more flesh to his teasers and perhaps rope himself into a defamation suit, if he is not telling the truth. Effective public communication does not need big grammar and long essays. Too many words are only necessary for lying. Now they have gone ahead to draw Sherriff Oborevwori into things Kenneth Gbagi didn’t say.

Kenneth Gbagi’s explosive revelations, if true, will change the trajectory of the governorship campaigns for the 2023 elections in Delta State. It will also force a closure to the blood letting combat for the governorship candidacy of the PDP. We know that PDP will be foolhardy and fight to the end in the Supreme Court for Sherriff. But they will be guaranteed to lose the governorship election if Sherriff is in the ballot for PDP. It would be interesting to see how many Deltans will throw their ballots for an “Okere” veteran.

The disclosure that Ifeanyi was made aware of the criminal record of the person he was projecting to be the ruler of Delta state, his lack of surprise at the revelation and his unwillingness to discard him in the light of such damaging exposure was not only stupefying but also revelatory of the lack of diligence in his choice of Sherriff as governor.

It shows clearly that Ifeanyi had no abiding desire to support a good and clean person to be governor of Delta state. He thus knowingly and willfully is projecting a “criminal” as candidate to govern the state. It is now clear to the people of Delta that Ifeanyi, from the very beginning, meant no good for the wellbeing of the state.
@basilokoh.