My dear Obidients and Well-Meaning Deltans/Nigerians,
PROLOGUE
I believe you may have heard of our victory on the 31st of August 2023, when the Appeal Court upheld our appeal against the ridiculous ruling/judgement of the Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, dismissing our petition for being “abandoned” at pre-trial hearing stage.
Against the background of this “belated birthday present”, which was erroneously (but I believe prophetically) widely reported as “Tribunal declares LP candidate as winner of Delta poll”, amongst other erroneous headlines, leading to wild jubilation across Delta and indeed the whole country, I am releasing this first of many updates to come, to apprise stakeholders like you of our progress in our journey towards building a better Delta.
Being the first update and covering a period of about 4 months, it tends to be a long read, so I crave your indulgence to find time to read it through, despite your busy schedule.
FORMAL APPRECIATION FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT
Firstly, let me apologise for the delay in this formal appreciation. This was because shortly after the elections, I had to travel to the United States for the wedding activities of my son billed for between the 29th of April and the 6th of May 2023.
However, before travelling, I hosted thank you get togethers for party members and the Obidient movement at Zonal levels in Delta State immediately after the election, before settling down to focus on gathering the information required and filing our petition at the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal. After filing the petition, I held zonal strategic meetings with LP candidates and LP Zonal/LGA chairmen to postmortem the elections and chart a way forward for the next few months. I also held meetings with the leaderships of the various umbrella Obidient movement groups in the state with the same agenda.
Since my return on the 31st of May 2023, I have rotated between following up on our own petition, supporting our Principal -Peter Gregory Obi (PO), with appearances at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal and consulting stakeholders of both the Obidient movement and LP at state, regional and national levels with a view to building unity across board and crafting the best way forward in the circumstances to ensure LP is spread across the country paticularly with off-season elections coming up in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa.
Having said that, please accept my heartfelt appreciation and gratitude for all your efforts and support for the Obidient movement for a new Nigeria in general and for our struggle for a better Delta in particular.
It is my prayer that the God we serve will not only reward you secretly but also reward you openly and may our labour for a new Nigeria and a better Delta not be in vain.
FROM THE BEGINNING TO 2023
On the 4th of April 1999 (Easter Night), I received a word of knowledge, that there was something I had been “looking at and laying down” for a while, and I was advised to diligently pursue it, because it was the Lord who was laying it in my heart, and that if I obeyed, it would lift my name above whatever my business could do.
At the time, even though I came from a family where my late father had been a member of the Midwest House of Assembly in the ’60s and my late elder brother had been a member of the Bendel House of Assembly in 1983, I never thought it was politics because I did not like the nature of Nigerian politics. I immediately assumed it must be some business proposal I had been ignoring, as I had settled on business as my vehicle for developing and changing the world around me, hence I set up a Community Bank (later Microfinance Bank), which was the first (and I believe still would have been the only) Bank in my Local Government, when I was just 26.
One year later, (in the year 2000), I received a direct prophesy that I was going to be the Governor of Delta State and change the narrative, and at that point, I obeyed the call to go into active politics and entered the race for the Chairmanship of my Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State with a vision of change, a “vision of hope, a vision of development, a vision of a better life, and a brighter future for us and our children. A vision for the New Millenium” (Screenshot 1).
Considering the circumstances under which I decided to go into politics in the first place and as I was fully convinced that the words of Romans 8:16 -17, (which says that as heirs with Christ, “if we are to share in his glory, we must also share in his suffering”); meant that as Christ sacrificed his life to save the world, in love and service to our Father, we have to be ready to do the same to save the world around us in love and service to our Father; I gave my all in that period, and in the year 2002, contested in and won the first and only direct primary ever held under the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
However, the powers that be in the PDP in the state otherwise known as “the system”, prevented me from becoming Chairman for reasons best known to them. This was despite several months of a tribunal process (which I also won), and a subsequent appeal process all the way to the National Secretariat of the PDP that lasted till early 2003. This “system” as we all know, has since held the state captive in an ever-increasing stranglehold of waste and corruption to date, albeit under 3 different leaderships that have taken the fortunes of the state from relatively good to bad to worse, and I dare say, the next cycle will be worster if allowed to happen/stay.
Approximately 20 years later, an enigma by name Peter Gregory Obi (PO), happened on the Nigerian political scene and inspired the birth of the Obidient Movement, which essence in my opinion is driven by the spirit of the words of Romans 8:16–17, as they sacrificed their time, their talents, and their treasures in the pursuit of the vision for a New Nigeria, symbolised by and led by PO.
Being a kindred spirit with the burden of an unfulfilled vision for change, I keyed into the movement, moved over to the Labour Party (LP), the political vehicle adopted to actualise the vision of a new Nigeria in May 2022, and launched my bid for the Governorship of Delta State to actualise a refined vision for “a better Delta State, where righteousness, harmony and prosperity reigns” with 8 key Prosperity Drivers designed to move Delta ‘from consumption to production” (Screenshot 2).
Immediately after my primaries in mid-August 2023, I decided at my own expense, to join PO on the Good Governance Tour of the United States through Los Angeles, Houston, Charlotte, Atlanta, Washington DC and New York between the 29th of August and the 4th of September 2022. This was to enable me get to know the man at close quarters and better understand the essence of the vision for a new Nigeria and replicate in Delta.
While on the tour, I was privileged to be part of a discussion before the Town Hall meeting organised by the Africa Business Club + Black Law Students Association of Colombia University, at the New York Hilton, on the 4th of September (Screenshot 3) during which PO emphasized the importance of focusing on winning the Presidency first and all other positions will follow.
On my return from the US, bearing in mind PO’s position on the issue (which was later reiterated at a Strategic Meeting with State Chairmen, Gubernatorial Candidates, Senatorial Candidates and House of Representative Candidates of LP at Barcelona Hotel, Abuja, on the 27th of December 2022), I undertook a painstaking SWOT analysis of my bid (the Obidient movement, limited resources, mutual distrust between candidates, and LP etc.), in relation to the strategic imperative of PO winning the very strategic Delta State, with its peculiar highly monetised political terrain, a Vice Presidential Candidate of the PDP/sitting Governor hell bent on installing his successor against the wishes of his former Governor Godfather, versus a sitting Deputy Senate President (also a protégé of the former Governor Godfather), flying the flag of the APC and I decided to run a strategic campaign that subordinated my brand/candidature to that of PO until two weeks to the Presidential Elections and then run a sprint for the remaining 4 weeks to the Governorship elections.
Three key objectives of this strategy were, (i) to position me as a dark horse and spring a surprise, (ii) pace my limited hard-earned resources in relation to the “unlimited” state sponsored resources of the candidates of the two major parties and (iii) mis-lead their supporters into whole-heartedly supporting PO’s candidature for a New Nigeria believing LP did not have a strong Governorship candidate that could threaten the continued stranglehold of “the system” on the state.
To the glory of God, I dare say my strategy worked, as the result was massive turnout and a landslide victory by a wide margin for the first time ever, for a non-PDP Presidential Candidate, in the state on the 25th of February 2023, setting the stage for the Governorship elections which was to take place on 11th March but later rescheduled to 18th March 2023.
However, on the 18th of March, the following factors combined to rob us of the same kind of sweeping victory:
1. A division in the Obidient Movement where a minority, who seemed to have positioned themselves for pecuniary gains, insisted that they were only for PO and were free to support candidates of any other party at other levels, who were considered more serious than some of us LP candidates, with seriousness mostly being measured by readiness to match these other candidates (who have access to state resources) in spending. For this minority, all my attempts to explain my strategy fell on deaf ears and they aligned with the APC thus opening our flanks for the rigging machine that was subsequently unleashed by the APC and PDP on election day.
2. The nature of LP which over the years had been basically a vehicle for political horse trading every four years, made our defences porous as this led to the non-availability of agents in most places and trading off our votes at collation centres. The situation was worsened by the non/ late payment of agents from the Presidential elections.
3. The activities of some leaders within LP who were from all indications, working in concert with the PDP to sabotage LP for the Governorship and enable them hijack the LP structure for a Governorship run in 2027.
4. Apart from the foregoing internal factors, the non-compliance of its own guidelines by INEC and the resultant rigging and manipulation during the Presidential elections, led to significant voter apathy to the extent that less than 50% of those who came out to vote in the Presidential election, turned out for the Governorship elections.
Irrespective of the foregoing factors, I am confident we would still have emerged the winners in a free and fair contest but for the fact that “the system”, now separated by greed and avarice into the twin camps of the PDAPC, took advantage of those factors to subvert the will of the people in the Governorship elections that took place on the 18th of March 2023 and which was characterized by the following:
1. Institutionalized vote buying with almost 100,000 civil servants and pensioners being paid =N=10,000.00 (Ten thousand naira), each a few days to when the elections was to have held on 11th March 2023.
2. Massive vote buying on election day by the twin scourges of PDAPC.
3. Violence and voter intimidation.
4. Massive over voting with the declared results being significantly more than those of the Presidential elections which witnessed twice the turnout.
5. Massive rigging and manipulation of results with the conversion of LP votes to PDP in several places.
Like I did 20 years ago, and now further inspired by the words spoken by PO at the Post-Election Press Conference on 2nd March 2023, I immediately proceeded to the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to challenge the process and ensure that whoever eventually emerges as the Governor of Delta State would be the result of an excellent process in the interest of the state (Screenshot 4).
However, unlike 20 years ago, when at the end of my tribunal and appeal process I tried to blend into “the system”, in the hope that I could somehow find a path to achieving my vision for Delta within “the system”, (forgetting that according to 2 Corinthians 2:14 AMP, righteousness has no partnership with lawlessness, neither does light have any fellowship with darkness), I am encouraged by the existence of a mass of kindred spirits in the Obidient Movement & Well-Meaning Deltans/Nigerians, to stay the course no matter the outcome of our petition at the tribunal and ensure that the vision for a better Delta is actualised no matter how long it takes. Like I told LP and Obidient leaders in several meetings with them since the elections, “indeed the dust has settled, and we can now know true Obidients from charlatans”.
OUR PETITION
We filed our election petition No. Gov 01/2023 on the 5th of May 2023 against 7 respondents as shown in Screenshot 5 and was based on 3 grounds as follows:
1. The 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th respondents, at the time of the election were not qualified to contest the election.
2. The election of the 2nd Respondent was invalid by reason of corrupt practices and/or non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
3. The 2nd Respondent was not duly elected by majority of the lawful votes cast in the election.
The 132-page petition had 4 alternative prayers as follows:
1. FIRST ALTERNATIVE:
(i) That it be determined that at the time of the Governorship election held on 18th March 2023, the 2nd/3rd and 5th /6th Respondents were not qualified to contest the election.
(ii) That it be determined that all the votes recorded for the 2nd/3rd and 5th /6th Respondents in the election are wasted votes, owing to the non-qualification/disqualification of the 2nd/3rd and 5th /6th Respondents.
(iii) That it be determined that on the basis of the remaining votes (after discountenancing the votes credited to the 2nd/3rd and 5th /6th Respondents), the 1st Petitioner scored a majority of the lawful votes cast at the election and had not less than 25% of the votes cast in each of at least 2/3 of the Local Government Areas, and satisfied the constitutional requirements to be declared the winner of the 18th March, 2023 Governorship election.
(iv) That it be determined that the Certificate of Return wrongly issued to the 2nd Respondent by the 1st Respondent is null and void and be set aside.
(v) An Order directing the 1st Respondent to issue the Certificate of Return to the 1st Petitioner as the duly elected Governor of Delta State.
2. IN THE ALTERNATIVE TO THE ABOVE: An Order cancelling the election and compelling the 1st Respondent to conduct a fresh election at which the 2nd/3rd and 5th /6th Respondents shall not participate.
3. IN THE ALTERNATIVE TO 1, AND 2 ABOVE:
(i) That it may be determined that the 2nd Respondent was not duly elected by a majority of the lawful votes cast in the election for the office of the Governor of Delta State, held on 18th March 2023; and therefore, the declaration and return of the 2nd Respondent as the winner of the Governorship election are unlawful, unconstitutional and of no effect whatsoever.
(ii) That it be determined that based on the valid votes cast at the Governorship election of 18th March, 2023, the 1st Petitioner scored the highest number of votes cast at the election and not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the Local Government Areas of the and ought to be declared and returned as the winner of the Governorship election.
(iii) That it be determined that the Certificate of Return wrongly issued to the 2nd Respondent by the 1st Respondent is null and void and be set aside.
(iv) An Order directing the 1st Respondent to issue the Certificate of Return to the 1st Petitioner as the duly elected Governor of Delta State.
4. IN THE FURTHER ALTERNATIVE TO 1, 2, AND 3 ABOVE:
(i) That the Governorship election conducted on 18th March 2023 is void on the ground that the election was not conducted substantially in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended.
(ii) An Order cancelling the Governorship Election conducted on 18th March 2023 and mandating the 1st Respondent to conduct a fresh election for the office of the Governor of Delta State.
STATUS OF OUR PETITION
The progress of our petition was initially delayed by the avoidance of service by the 2nd/3rd and 5th /6th Respondents until we obtained an order for substituted service on 10th May 2023.
After the substituted service, our counsel issued a pre-trial conference notice on Form TF007 accompanied by Form TF 008 on 19th May 2023 in compliance with section 18 (1) and (2) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022 (per Screenshot 6), based on completion of pleadings with the 1st, 4th and 7th respondents on the strength of which pre-trial conference was fixed to commence on 5th June 2023.
On the 5th of June, pre-trial had to be rescheduled for 2 weeks to 20th June 2023, for the 2nd and 3rd Respondents to complete filing of pleadings.
On the 20th of June, counsel for the 2nd and 3rd Respondent filed an application to dismiss our petition on the grounds that we filed for pre-trial hearing before they completed pleadings and as such our application was premature, incompetent, incurably defective and should consequently be dismissed as having been abandoned in line with Section 18 (4) also shown in Screenshot 6.
Our counsel naturally opposed the application, but surprisingly, on the 26th of June 2023, the tribunal dismissed our petition in its entirety despite the clear provisions of Sections 53(1), (2), (4) & (5), per Screenshot 7.
Dissatisfied with the ruling/ judgement we filed our notice of appeal on 19th July 2023, transmitted the records of appeal to the Court of Appeal on 27th of July 2023, filed our Appellants Brief of Arguments on 1st of August 2023, in which we urged the Court of Appeal to uphold our appeal based on the reasons shown in Screenshot 8.
As can be seen, one of the reasons is the provision of Section 285(8) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which provides that where “a preliminary objection or any other interlocutory issue touching on the jurisdiction of the tribunal or court in any pre-election matter or on the competence of the petition itself is raised by a party, the tribunal or court shall suspend its ruling and deliver it at the state of final judgement”. This provision which is part of the First Amendment was obviously included in the Constitution to ensure petitions are heard fully on their merit, rather than justice being subverted by a technicality as was done in our case.
The Respondents were served with our brief of arguments on 4th August 2023, they served us their response on 7th August 2023, our counsels filed our replies on points of law, on 9th August 2023 and Counsels adopted their briefs of arguments during the hearing on the 16th of August 2023.
To the glory of God, on the 31st of August 2023 (3 days after my birthday), the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, upheld our appeal (in a belated birthday gift to me), thus clearing the way for the substance of our petition to now be heard. It has been a long battle to this point and will probably be an even longer battle to get to the end, but we are confident that victory is certain.
STATUS OF OTHER PETITIONS APPARENTLY AIMED AT STOPPING OR DISTRACTING US
I believe it is pertinent at this point to bring to your attention, the fact that on the 6th of April 2023, the Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, filed Petition No Gov 02/2023 against 13 Respondents as shown in Screenshot 9.
In the petition, they sought 17 reliefs including the disqualification/ nullification of the candidature of all those who came 1st to 4th in the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission and declaring the 1st Petitioner (who came 5th), as the only qualified candidate and the duly elected Governor of Delta State or in the alternative, cancelling the election and ordering a fresh election where all the candidates who came 1st to 4th would not be candidates (Screenshot 10).
The grounds for the disqualification of my running mate — Prof. Mrs Julie Nwabogo Umukoro, and I who are the 10th and 9th Respondents respectively are as shown in Screenshot 11 and our defence/ comments on the allegations made against us are as follows:
- The allegation that the 10th Respondent lied under oath about her age, is baseless and spurious and no evidence was adduced/ provided to back it whatsoever.
2. The allegation that I was indicted by both a panel and then a review panel and found guilty of “corruptly diverting public funds to personal use…to the tune of =N=100,000,000.00” is also baseless and spurious. They falsely and indeed perjuriously stated that they would rely on the “panel report and the review report” only to tender printouts of articles published in 2 online blogs about a press statement allegedly issued by a faceless Delta Professional Network in evidence. Clearly, they were unable to produce any “panel report and the review report” because no such report exists.
It is also not true that I “was also dismissed and subsequently sacked as Chairman of Delta State Building Society”. If this allegation was even remotely true, I would not have been subsequently appointed a member of the first Governing Council of the Delta School of Marine Technology, Burutu after I was cleared of all allegations, and I rejected the Board of Delta Building Society being called back from suspension. I would also not have been eventually paid full severance benefits.
3. The allegations of being “indicted by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) for mismanaging public funds in Ughievwen Community Bank” is also baseless and spurious. They tendered a letter written by NDIC (apparently in response to enquiries about what the community needed to do to reopen the bank) which directed further enquiries to the CBN because the bank could not be reopened as it’s “License was revoked by the CBN on 28th November 2013 and the bank was closed on 4th February 2014”. Nothing in the said letter remotely suggested an indictment.
For the avoidance of doubt, the bank’s license was wrongfully revoked after the CBN classified pass-through Delta State Microfinance Scheme loans as part of the bank’s risk assets for the purpose of calculating capital adequacy rather than as contingent liabilities being loans issued on behalf of and funded by the State Government to beneficiaries designated by them without recourse to the bank due to the position taken by the Delta State Microfinance Agency after the 2011 re-run elections when the then Chairman of the Bank supported the opposition. In the circumstances, the bank sued for wrongful termination of its license and the matter is currently pending before the Supreme Court.
4. Having clarified the allegations, assuming without conceding, that there was indeed an administrative panel of inquiry that found me guilty, and a white paper was issued by a review panel or even the CBN revoked the license of the bank for any wrongdoing, as claimed, neither of the allegations meet the condition for disqualification of a Governorship candidate per the relevant sections 182(1)(d)&(e) of the 1999 Constitution as amended (per Screenshot 12).
An administrative panel of inquiry or even the CBN or NDIC are not a “competent court of law or tribunal”. For any offense to qualify, one would have had to be charged to a court or tribunal for the supposed offense(s) and be “convicted” meaning “having officially been found guilty of a crime in a law court” (Cambridge Dictionary). This is not the case here.
5. The allegation that I hid the facts of my purported “indictment” from INEC in my Form EC9 that I swore to in support of my Nomination Form cannot stand in law as the relevant question asked in the form is whether I have “in the last ten years been convicted and/or sentenced for an offence or dishonesty” and of course the right answer is NO, in the light of the definition of “convicted” stated above.
Be that as it may, I would like to use this opportunity to categorically state that, my records of service in the private and public sector are an open book, and I challenge anyone who cares to “go and verify”.
While the petition of the SDP candidate is understandable and indeed not unexpected, a curious twist in the whole saga, is the fact that the Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) — Great Ovedje Ogboru, who came 4th in the election and who the SDP candidate is also seeking to disqualify with petition No. Gov 02/2023; is against all logic, using the instrumentality of petition Gov 02/2023 to actively push for my disqualification and that of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Although it can be presumed that he is doing this because our disqualification could enhance his chances also, the fact that he is not seeking the disqualification of the PDP candidate/presumed winner of the election nor actively defending himself clearly indicates that his aim is to sabotage us. Given his obvious public alliance with the PDP candidate/presumed winner of the election, this is not surprising.
Whatever the case may be, this has increased the distractions to our diligently pursuing our own petition not to talk of the significantly increased legal costs that accompany defending ourselves against both attacks.
ALLEGATIONS OF BEING A STOOGE FOR OKOWA
While I had addressed this allegation several times during the campaign and after, I would like to use the opportunity of this update to address it again, as the allegation still lingers.
Against the background of my journey to, throughout and since the elections outlined here, I believe any right-thinking person will agree that it is totally ridiculous for anyone to be talking of me being a stooge for anyone, least of all Okowa.
From our investigations, the stories were deliberately planted by elements in the PDP camp to weaken our chances. They have and will continue to fail.
OUR IMMEDIATE PLANS TOWARDS ACTUALISING THE VISION OF A BETTER DELTA
As stated earlier, “I am encouraged by the existence of a mass of kindred spirits in the Obidient Movement, to stay the course no matter the outcome of our petition at the tribunal and ensure that the vision for a better Delta is actualised no matter how long it takes’. Consequently, we are building a Team Better Delta that would come up with/ embark on well thought out strategic objectives/ initiatives towards actualising our vision for a better Delta.
Apart from regular update to stakeholders like this one, two other strategic objectives/ initiatives already launched/to be launched within the next month or two, are:
1. Creating awareness on what a better Delta could be like and regularly engaging with Deltans — In furtherance of this objective, we would:
- (i) From time to time, release statements on topical issues, or actions of, or pronouncements of the current government viewed from the prism of a better Delta government.
- (ii) Introduce the Letter to Deltans Series under which we would publish our analysis/ views/ positions on various policies/ aspects of governance in Delta State in relation to how it could be under a better Delta.
The first letter to Deltans was published on the 24th of July 2023, and in it, we analysed the State’s debt profile, in relation to its revenue and expenditure in the last 8 years and compared our performance with that of our peers in the South-South Geopolitical Zone before making recommendations on what could have been and should now be done differently going forward to improve the lot of our people.
On review of the letter (a copy of which is attached for your perusal), you will find the following:
(i) Total Debt dropped from =N=338 billion in 2015 to =N=180 billion in 2021 before rising to =N=331 billion in 2022 and =N=470 billion in Mar-23. Giving the timing of the spike, the reason for this is obvious.
(ii) Despite the state government having over =N=2,374 trillion to spend between January 2015 and March 2023 (made up of total revenue of =N=2,242 trillion and net increase in of =N=132 billion), we have very little on the ground to show for it compared to Rivers State because, while Rivers State’s capital expenditure:recurrent expenditure spending priority ratio was 67%:43%, Delta State’s was the reverse at 43%:67%.
(iii) If Delta State cuts the waste and corruption in it’s system to bring it’s overheads down to the level of that of Rivers State, it would free up a minimum of =N=100 billion annually for development of the kind of ambitious prosperity driver programs we have planned to actualise a better Delta.
In our subsequent letters to Deltans (which we will publish every other month), we will address other areas like elaborating on each of our 8 Prosperity Drivers, Local Government administration, DESOPADEC administration, education, health, unemployment, multi-dimensional poverty, etc.
2. Integrating Obidient Delta with/ Repositioning Delta LP with the Team Better Delta — We have been discussing with the leadership of the Obidient movement at state and national levels as well as the leadership of LP at the state level and are currently developing a Roadmap to be discussed and agreed with major stakeholders for implementation from October 2023. Expected elements of this roadmap include:
(i) Introducing and institutionalizing a Leaders and Elders Council from Ward to LGA to State level to be made up of Obidient Movement and other opinion leaders who actively support LP.
(ii) Regular town hall meetings to at State, Zonal and LGA levels to sensitize and drive membership of the party.
EPILOGUE
Dear Obidients and Well-meaning Deltans/Nigerians.
As valued stakeholders in this “Journey to a Better Delta”, we have taken out time in this update, to give you some insight into how this journey started, the challenges we have faced/ are facing and how we have progressed until this point. Being a long read, we indeed appreciate your patience to have read it through, just as we appreciate all your support so far on this journey.
On our part, we remain committed to this cause of building “a better Delta State, where righteousness, harmony and prosperity reigns”, and trust that we can continue to count on your unflinching support in this journey.
Yours sincerely,
Kawhariebie Ken Pela
1st September 2023
A better Delta is PO-ssible
