By Yinka Ajayi
Speaks on alleged N1.2bn Jonathan election money for Urhobo

Chief Joe Omene is the President General, Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, Worldwide. He is also the National President of Okotie-Eboh Grammar School Old Boys Association, Sapele, Delta State.

In this interview, Omene bares his mind on the union’s forthcoming election, the N1.2b allegedly given to him by the former President Goodluck Jonathan, during UPU leaders visit to Aso Rock and endorsement of governorship candidate during the 2015 general elections.

Can you tell us some of your major challenges since you assumed office about three years ago?

I am not the kind who will give excuses for not being able to achieve my goals. But my challenges are numerous; when you are in such a sensitive position, you may have offended one or two persons, but my priority has been Urhobo interest which I took oath to protect. Apart from that, there was this challenge of the unity of Urhobo nation, and by the grace of God we are united, mostly the average Urhobo man. As a union, we are doing the much we can to unite Urhobos, both at home, across the country and those living outside the country, in order to see that we are one

Omene

Despite the challenges, I have done well by ensuring that the Urhobo nation is heard in all parts of the country. If you mention Urhobo just like the Afenifere, Ndigbo and the Arewa, people now know that the Urhobo nation is existing and this came about because of the publicity in the country and outside. UPU today is no longer UPU yesterday, because people in government and in the business world now know the Urhobo nation. When our daughter, Ese Oruru, a 14-year old girl, was abducted and taken away, we were able to do everything possible to assist the parents to see that she was brought back and during the trial of the suspected abductors, when our brothers in the country, the Hausa, Fulanis tried to sweep the issue under the carpet, trying to frustrate the process, we provided legal assistance through UPU National Secretary, who is a SAN to appear for the girl. We showed solidarity despite the fact that the parents are not based in Urhoboland.

Again, I was able to go everywhere Urhobo man is around the world, and, before l came on board, the union was having less down thirty UPU branches within and outside Nigeria, but presently, we have about 70 branches across the world and more branches will emerge. And this is being pursued in order to make our people feel the impact of the union that has been in existence for over 80 years ago. After establishing these branches, I keep in touch with them and in doing this l have visited branches in the United Kingdom, Asia, with headquarters in Malaysia, Ghana and even Burkina Faso and l can tell you they were all happy seeing me.

There were allegations against the union over the support for one Urhobo son against the other during the 2015 general elections. What is your reaction?

When you look at the support we gave, it was not based on political consideration. We ex-rayed everything and considered how it will benefit Urhobo nation. At the governorship level, we supported Labour Party; at the presidential, we supported PDP. Initially, we didn’t want to support anybody or party.

All we wanted to do was to preach peace so that the election could come and go peacefully, without rancor. But the people who say crucify him today, are the same people who came and pushed UPU to support a particular person or party. We were on our own, when leaders and elders forum of UPU came and said Urhobo man must be governor and UPU must do something. So, we worked out the modalities to ensure that all the political parties present Urhobo as their candidates.

We went to Abuja to meet Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Chief E.K. Clark, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan to appeal to them and they agreed that the governor should come from Urhobo, but it was same Urhobo politicians that, at the last minutes, sabotaged the effort because of personal interest. After we have missed that, we came and resolved to support a governorship candidate between Labour Party, Chief Great Ogboru and APC, Chief O’tega Emerhor. And we asked them to go and do their campaign, but one day, the same UPU elders came again to say UPU should not allow two of her sons to contest, that one should step down for the other.

They said we should endorse Ogboru because he was more popular than Emerhor; what about presidential. They said Jonathan was it because the Afenifere, Ndigbo, Ijaw and everybody in the South-south were supporting him. We told them that we should consult further. We now invited the President-Generals of the various 24 kingdoms led by Dr. Obakponovwe, the elders and leaders led by Justice Dugbo, the Ewheya (women) of UPU, the youths wing and they all said we should support Ogboru for governor and Jonathan for president apart from the clergy forum which said UPU could support any one between them.

After due consultations, the UPU executive met and voted and four of the members of the exco went in favour of Chief O’tega Emerhor and APC, the other ten members supported Ogboru and PDP, which now divided the UPU, since it was four against ten. Out of those four, one now declared himself as acting President-General.

What would you say about the N1.2b alleged to have given to you by President Goodluck Jonathan?

Before we went to visit Goodluck Jonathan, I had done some research work and noticed that there was about 16 political appointments given to Delta State out of which 14 went to Delta North, two to Ijaw nation, but none to Urhobo, Isoko and Itsekiri and I was able to get the names of these 16 beneficiaries. I immediately went to the press to cry out. So, Jonathan decided to invite us for consultations and assured us that he will give a position to Urhobo. Orubebe resigned, we now got a ministerial appointment; if we had not complained, Dr. Steve Oru would have been minister.

While Jonathan was speaking to us, I told him that I will love to have about 10 minutes audience and he granted it, because you cannot talk bad of somebody in his presence. But before we finished talking, it was more than 10mins. I told the President like we published in the papers, why all the appointment he gave to Delta, there was non-Urhobo and we gave you the highest votes? He opened up that it wasn’t deliberate, that until I cried out, he did not know such numbers of appointment had gone to Delta North through the ministry of finance and economic development and the minister in charge happened to be from Delta North.

We now left. Nobody said anything about the visit because, at that point in time, we had not endorsed anybody, and it was the moment we endorsed Ogboru and Jonathan, after due consultations, that one Monday Oyeghe alleged that I was given N1.2b on behalf of the Urhobo nation. And this issue came when he (Monday Oyeghe) had left Sen. Agwariaovwodo of PDP to join O’tega in APC. l ignored it because the claim was false. Much later after the general elections were over, some members of my executives were almost convinced that l was given N1.2b, so l went to meet one of my deputies, Chief Austin Uloho, in company of the union’s treasurer and financial secretary, and Chief Uloho, said there was evidence, that one Monday Oyeghe said the money was given to me in the presence of Sen. Agwariaovwodo.

So, l put a call to Agwariaovwodo to ask if he knew Monday Oyeghe, and Agwariavwodo said we should not mind him, that he used to be his boy until they parted ways and the boy went to join Emerhor. Agwariavwodo asked if l was PDP Chairman, that l should be given such money and said I shouldn’t mind him. Meanwhile, before that time, they had sent a petition to the kings who invited me, he Oyegbe group, and Onoge group and I told them everything including the telephone call, and when the kings asked Uloho, he said it was mere rumour. The kings advised they should all go and work together with me.

So, I told them that if there was anybody who could prove that I was given that kind of money, I will resign my position on the spot. Fortunately, there came a time of Dasuki’s confession, some of them were jubilating that he will confess that I got N1.2 billion, but he did not say anything about Omene.
They are saying they don’t want Omene but the question is, what has he done or what did he do? Nobody has come forward to answer that question because anything he did was done collectively both the endorsement of Ogboru and Jonathan, so why do they want to crucify me for nothing?