Ede Dafinone, A Son, Urhobo Must Queue Behind To The Senate

By: Joe Tobias Aminah

Two men stood out in contemporary history of Urhobo nation for the actualisation of the lofty dreams of Delta Central in its sociopolitical assessment.

Names that easily prop up on the lips of enlightened Urhobo men and women, were the late sage and internationally accomplished Guinness Book of Records, Family of Seven Chattered Accounts, Chief David Omueya Dafinone, popular called DOD.

Late Chief (Senator) David Dafinone was also recorded in history as the first and foremost senator from the Urhobo ethnic nationality in the second republic for many reasons,

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DOD, was followed by another renowned, Urhobo son, the late technocrat Engr,(Senator) Fred Brume, a fundamentalist in industrial and political emancipation of the fifth ethnic nationality and a core and die-hard Urhobo patriot.

Brume painstakingly created the frame work and both the engineering and administration of the DSC in a solo effort to the economic sustenance of the steel industry in Nigeria while employing a workforce of unprecedented number of majorly Urhobo sons and daughters in strategic positions.

He selflessly contributed to the creation and albeit sustenance of Delta Steel Complex before military plunder and final redundancy.

However, there was a foundation of which the establishment of DSC was rooted and it was none other than second republic Senator David Dafinone. a chattered accountant and Director, Central Bank of Nigeria who moved the bill establishing and siting DSC at Aladja in the then Bendel State.

DOD, an acronym that is synonymous in everything great and graceful in Urhobo nation, Delta state and Nigeria economic development.

Apart from sundry establishments and private investments in the rubber industry in his home state, Late Senator D O Dafinone was the architect and mover of the motion in Senate for the modern Sea port in Ogorode,
Sapele.

Engr Brume, fortunately an Urhobo, was seconded from his opulent seat in the World Steel Council on Senator Dafinone discovery and begged to come back to his fatherland.
It is now history how Engr Frederick Brume used his expertise to perfect the magic of the citing of the conglomerate steel company to full scale with over 80 percent production in its kitty which for over a decade was sustained until the witches in the name of military collapsed it.
The glory of DSC, Aladja, died simultaneously with the new Sapele Seaport, also recreated by Senator Dafinone in the Shehu Shagari’s government.

DOD did not relent his efforts until the full actualisation of DSC and Sapele Model Port Complex were off the ground and functioning.
The Ajaokuta Steel Rolling Mills, created same time with DSC Aladja is yet to produce a pellet of steel since its inception in 1979 till date.

These are some of the achievements by the father of APC Senate candidate, Olorogun Ede Dafinone, as he campaigns in his father’s birth place and constituency – Delta Central Senatorial District in a renewed spirit to replicate anew the contributions of the late sage.

DSC, which was evidently the greatest fortune of democratic dividend that came the way of Urhobo nation, through then Bendel State but unfortunately slipped off its fingers like a discarded wedding ring from an unsuccessful marriage of a couple.

Ironically, what befell the completed first phase of the endearing Seaport also affected DSC after the later had functioned for years with optimum production of steel pellets for local consumption and attendant satisfaction in staff and workforce.

The records of these distinguished Urhobo sons may be separated from the late Chief Michael Ibru of the Ibru dynasty and former economic adviser to the federal government, Deacon Gamaliel Onosode apart from late Chief Mukoro Mowoe, the trail blazer of Urhobo unified struggle under the Urhobo Progress Union, UPU.

A roofing sheet production company known as ETERNIT Nigeria Limited also found its way to Sapele, Delta state, courtesy of the “Owhere of Okpe Kingdom” DOD, giving the town and its environs a new lease of socio-economic boom.
ETERNIT also went underground, the same irredeemable way like its big sisters establishments.

Despite unascertained reasons for its relocation to the eastern part of the country and even DOD as a major stakeholder in the consortium with other branches in Lagos, Enugu and Kaduna.

While in the Senate, Dafinone in his selfless service and genial spirit, donated his full tenure salaries to daunting infrastructural challenges of the Federal government and a percentage to charity of the have-nots in society.

DOD, the consummate and quintessential two time second republic senator, patriarch of the Guinness World Records of Family of Chartered Accountants, Former, Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, Director, Consultant on Budgetary Affairs of the federal government and renowned industrialist bowed to nature in 2018 leaving behind the great job on the shoulders of his children, especially the beloved from his stable, Ede Dafinone.

Cap in hand, Ede is begging stakeholders and patriotic Urhobo sons and daughters to vote him and see the returns of democracy dividends back to the fifth largest but neglected and near forsaken Urhobo nation.

As the people themselves know, the scion of the Dafinones Foundation started it all over a decade ago with trainings and empowerment of the women folks from different local government areas of Delta Central.

Based in Sapele, the training and empowerment program has gulped over half a billion by its cost estimation two years ago.

A large section of the public in an opinion poll, scored Ede Dafinone as a fulfilled man, endowed with inherited wisdom of his father DOD, educated in no small measure, exposed to economic and political challenges of Delta senatorial district, Nigeria and the world as well as an industrialist and economist by orientation.

Ede Dafinone is the son from the DOD dynasty that tails along his father and the multinational businesses since the age of 15 rather than his older brother Chief Igho Dafinone.

He overseas the rubber, the estate, the oil and gas, the shopping centres in Abuja and took charge of CEEDI Centre, headquarters, Apapa, Lagos,

Resigned from NEXIM BANK less than two years of his appointment into the board by the federal government to pursue the calling of Urhobo nation to render his sterling background service to them come 2023.

Urhobo nation is praying to GOD Almighty and the gods of our fatherland, to guide and protect Ede, shortened as Edesiri in Urhobo, meaning ” A glorious day” as he awaits the victorious song, come February 2023.

Chief Ede Dafinone, no doubt is not from a poor parental background, seeking money to starch away in Swiss banks to build houses and acquire State of the arts cars or marry more wives in an inordinate pursuit of pleasure.

His training and orientation of his welfarist family of helping the poor, the needy and indigents in society has been his cross, placed on his shoulder on behalf of the Dafinone Dynasty, Ede represents the family in its multi faceted businesses and chattered accountancy services nationally and abroad, runs the rubber company from its planting and latex harvesting stages to processed tyre and sundry rubber derivatives products around the world.

The saddle of selfless training and empowering especially the women folks in his constituency for over a decade is placed on Ede’s shoulder and a large number of women are either direct beneficiaries or members of their families or their friends.

Ede Dafinone also had the tutelage of community affairs, from the life patron position of DOD bequeathed to him as the current Chairman, Sapele Okpe Community Trust Fund, the Senate seeker is fully abreast with most communities problems and desires.

By these few in the skill, intellectual and orientations of our own technocrat, Olorogun Ede Dafinone, Urhobo sons and daughters at home and in Diaspora give their full and unwavering support to the messiah they have been waiting for and with their undeniable votes.
Welcome, Ede