Leaders of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta South Senatorial District have described as a mere ruse, the accusations of N1.3 trillion financial misappropriation against immediate past Governor of the state, Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa.
The PDP leaders made the assertion when they paid a solidarity visit to Okowa at his Asaba residence on Wednesday.
Speaking on behalf of the leaders, Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Emomotimi Guwor, said that the allegations were concocted to malign and impugn the personality of the former governor.
“In the past few weeks, we were inundated by the lies from our political detractors who orchestrated frivolous allegations against you.
“We are here to tell you that we are with you, the National Leader of PDP in Delta State, because we know that all they have said against you is a mere ruse.
“We know it is not possible for somebody to misappropriate N1.3 trillion as alleged and that is why we are here as a people to assure you that the people of Delta South are behind you and we will continue to stand firm and strong with you.
“We will never believe any of their stories because we know that you are a pathfinder in Delta State who laid a very good foundation for the present administration of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori.
“We firmly stood behind Governor Oborevwori during the last election, and that is why we did not lose any local government in Delta South in the last governorship election.
“I can assure you that we are still in touch with our people to repeat the same feat in 2027,” he said.
Responding, Okowa thanked the people of Delta South for the solidarity visit and said that it was heart-warming.
He restated that he was not bothered about the allegations because his administration did everything within the ambit of the law.
According to him, I am not troubled at all because I know that it was just a media trial. It does not make sense to say somebody misappropriated such a humongous amount of money.
“We thank God that everything we did was within the ambit of the law and if all the monies were stolen as alleged, it means we couldn’t have paid salaries and pensions, executed projects or had funds for running the government.
“The allegations were a clear mischief because the communication out there was not in line with the petition that was written.
“Those who worked with us know that we did the best we could within the circumstances we met, and there was nothing we did that we didn’t go through the Appropriation law.
“There is a lot going on, and a lot more will still go on before 2027, but by the grace of God, we will continue to weather the storm.” the former governor added.
The Delta South delegation included Chairman of the party in the district, Chief Emman Amgbaduba, members of the State House of Assembly, commissioners, council chairmen, local governments’ chairmen of the party and top government functionaries.
