The Executive governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa spoke candidly on Chief James Ibori recently. Hear him:

“There was   Grassroots Democratic Movement, GDM, though a small party then during the Abacha time; then UNCP where we had the moneybags and big politicians, but somehow, some of us,   the younger ones felt that we needed to create a new politics, that was in 1996 and we found ourselves joining the Grassroots Democratic Movement. Why, because the national chair then was also very young, so he was able to recruit some of us, who were young into the place and nobody actually believed in us. Therefore, it was in the Grassroots Democratic Movement, what we called the GDM that I actually met Chief James Ibori in 1996.

We struggled hard, we were able to win five local governments out of the 25 in Delta state and people put us off, but we played good politics then even when we were quite young. I had been council chair before, so I understood what politics was.   He (Ibori)   also had made an attempt to run before, people like Senators James Manager, Ighoyota Amori; it was a young crop of persons; all of us below 40 then that actually populated the place.

However, when the new political era was to start after the Abacha time, immediately we realized then that UNCP was going to be a major problem to us, we quickly teamed up with DPN, the Democratic Party of Nigeria and that gave us strength because they also had four local government areas and we had five, which made it nine.   So we had improved on our strength, the combination actually gave us a very good strength, we formed what we called the Delta National Congress in Warri and that was the tool with which we went to link up with the G34 and then eventually joined the PDP. The rest is now history because we surprisingly took Delta State at that time.”

“I think he found in me, somebody that is ready to work very hard at every point in time. Everything I want to do, without trying to praise myself, I think I am always very committed to it, right from my youth. I know I was very committed in the campaigns through the GDM. When we came to the PDP, I was very committed. However, one thing too, he also saw in me somebody who will fight injustice at every point in time. The thing was showing at the beginning of PDP when he had already promised that he would make me Deputy Governor then.   However, I just found that some people are oppressing others in my constituency, they could not speak their minds and people could not rise up to contest.

They wanted to anoint people and I rose up against that and when the party did its manoeuvring, I turned my back and said no, you cannot do this,   and that was what led to the emergence of people like Nduka Irabor. Because they did not give him a chance to come in and I felt he was a strong character and someone that could represent us, in that process of fighting the authorities then, it became an issue.

Therefore, Chief James Ibori saw in me someone with a very strong character. So I think that warmed us up because at every point in time, I always offered him the truth and told him what I thought was right and when things went wrong, others may speak politically,   but I will speak based on the facts.”

– Culled from VANGUARD