BY EFEROVO IGHO

I MUST necessarily start by congratulating Goodluck Jonathan for listening to me on the matter of Ibori’s London trial. In “Any Deal between Jonathan, Ibori-Uduaghan” recently published by various media organs home and abroad I opened that topic this way: “We all love Goodluck Jonathan, and yours sincerely has arguably done more pro-GEJ articles (published home and abroad) than anybody since Atiku emptied his political campaigns of sanity.

But honestly the issue of Jonathan’s sudden silence about Ibori and equally sudden romance with Uduaghan, who hitherto has fought against him because of Ibori, his cousin and mentor, a man sane community of humanity and mankind want prosecuted without any successful buy off as in other cases before now, is a matter of hurting concern. Therefore, I beg to write differently today!”

And I sailed out to tell Jonathan why Ibori must first go to London NOW to be tried and the implications for Deltans and for his (Jonathan’s) ambition if this was not done NOW. We do not intend to reproduce that work here except to say presently that it recommends itself as a must read anytime, and to appreciate Jonathan’s prompt reaction to it.

Before we go ahead I must necessarily here preempt the purpose of this piece which is that: opportunity now beckons Deltans not only to renew their mandate for Ogboru in the April 26, 2011 gubernatorial election in Delta State but to ensure that no one frustrates this mandate this time around. Deltans have had enough of rubbish and international disgrace. All that must come to an end now. What follows immediately after now down to the concluding posers justify this position.

The very disgusting ‘gist’ is that Ibori among other things now has to answer for Deltans $34 million or about N5 billion in far away London, being part of our monies (something perhaps like a tip of the iceberg) he stacked up in the U.K. We are blank for now about the total sum stacked up in other places say South Africa (where grapevine has said so much about), UAE (that is now his home after the 12 years or so of  siege on our treasuries). And you may go on and on. Our monies! How inexpressibly sad!

If you remember that Emmanuel Uduaghan was secretary to Ibori’s so-called government you do not need to be told that Ibori couldn’t have done all the profligately financial acts in government without the secretary to his government. The office of the SSG is, in fact, the engine room of government. Whatever it allowed is carried out; whatever it does not allow is not done; whatever is done is known to it; and whatever it covers actually remains buried! Besides it being the summary of governance, it is supposed to be the chief secretariat to all secretariats including the finance ministry.

And if you also remember that before Ibori left his usurped office (and that was because of the collapse of OBJ’s third term agenda which Ibori and colleagues supported because it was their joint agenda actually) he ‘anointed’ and then ‘appointed’ Uduaghan to take over the office of governor from him ostensibly to cover his (Ibori’s) track, then you may take it from me that Uduaghan is more than an accomplice in Ibori’s games.

And it may even be more than that.  I have come to take grapevine very seriously in the matter of Ibori and now of Uduaghan. Almost all that has been reaching us over the years as news about Ibori have actually been thoroughly detailed on our streets in Delta; that is, before they became banner headlines and screaming headlines.

The sweeping news right now (and it has really been there for more than a year now) is that Uduaghan is stinking rich. Almost unbelievable things are freely told on the streets about the wealth of his family with specific mention of his young children. Well, there is no smoke without fire they say. Ibori’s ‘fire’ came first as smoke. And we told the world repeatedly that there is fire under that smoke; when it became inferno and conflagration we also wrote, but it took so many years and, now, with the help of London for us to believe.  Meanwhile, some of us did these at the expense of our lives and businesses. There were serious attempts to cow us. When we felt the heat of the threat some of us went under; yours sincerely for instance made a quick and fast one to Lagos and remained under cover for a long time. I mean in this battle to free Delta! My losses? Wait a minute!

Today, the threat seems again to be coming from Uduaghan’s camp. Recently Uduaghan, through his Consultant, Public Communication and Strategy responded to one of my widely published piece with a full page advertorial in the Vanguard of February 8, 2011. I countered his response with a series of four articles. In one of those counter-responses, “Ogboru: Uduaghan’s Rejoinder and Grammar” which, again, was widely published home and abroad I wrote inter alia: “The last word Mr.

Consultant abused is provoked. He said conclusively, in bold letters and with an exclamation: “We refuse to be provoked!” By doing a rejoinder, are Uduaghan and Mr. Consultant not provoked already? What is ‘provoked’, and what is ‘rejoinder’? Does he know that provoke means to incite something, cause activity, stir somebody to response or to elicit response? Has my piece not caused them to do all of that already: incited them, caused them to act, stirred their response and elicited their response? The piece prompted or provoked them to react. They acted! Okay, let’s take it they mean they do not want to feel angry, another meaning we can associate with provoke. But that was what they actually revealed all through the full-page ad. They were angry and agitated all through. They paraded irritation throughout from intro to final period!

“But hold it: Mr. Consultant may mean another level of anger that reveals itself in assassination and bloodshed! Because this has been the rule in governance in Delta State since 1999 and which made some of us fled the state, and that included yours sincerely who started writing then from Lagos as a result and that before he could settled down again in Delta State he has lost all his businesses in the state, the Nigerian Police and SSS must here be notified!

For our sake, let the Federal Government security agencies endeavour to be on the alert and vigilant. But let this be well understood however: We refuse to be cowed! After all the one (their grandmaster) who then made us run for our dear lives is today receiving just retribution just as his flight violently collided with the long arm of the law.

Now, another opportunity beckons to vote out Ibori and his proxies and vestiges again; and with the environment being created: Deltans must make sure that their mandate stands this time around.

Mr. Igho  a commentator on national  issues, wrote from Warri, Delta State.