A kinsman of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Richard Kpodoh, has declared that the people of the Niger Delta will massively vote for President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
Kpodoh made the declaration while reacting to Jonathan’s recent claims that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will reclaim power in 2019.
In an open letter to the President, the Bayelsa State elder statesman stressed that Buhari’s two years in power had exposed the rot perpetrated by the Jonathan’s administration.
Kpodoh said Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, recent clampdown on those he described as, “Jonathan boys” in Bayelsa and other parts of the country has shown that the administration of the former President was the worst in the history of Nigeria.
Describing Jonathan’s reign as years of “holocaust,” Kpodoh said the former president shortchanged the people of the region in his six years in power by selfishly empowering a few individuals from his Ogbia Local Government Area while sidelining people from other local councils.
The letter reads, “It was this same sleeky and selfish attitude that he (Jonathan) brought to bear on his six years leadership of the country which saw to the impoverishment of our Bayelsa and the Niger Delta People, except for a few of his Ogbia kinsmen including the Turners, the Eruanes, the Azibaolas and by extension, the Diezanis.
“For good six years, former President Jonathan, our own son presided over the helm of affairs in Nigeria and yet his own Bayelsa State, and the Niger Delta states which gave him all the support, are crying out for human and infrastructural development.
“This, in my opinion, is absolutely inexplicable and smacks off of his glaring wickedness even to his kits and kin”.
The elder statesman sympathised with the current President over the nature of the economy he inherited from Jonathan.
The letter reads further, “I also know that the job of bringing Nigeria back to reckoning among the comity of states is not yours alone. But the Job is of God and you are his vessel to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians in spite of the desperation by ‘evil’ politicians to truncate the divine assignment through propaganda and misinformation.
“Or how do you describe the sponsored protest in Lagos calling for your resignation? These were evil doers at work I have closely followed your successes and difficulties in the ongoing fierce battle against corruption and corrupt persons.
“We are happy that stolen monies were recovered and guilty ones exposed. We are more elated by the recent successes recorded in the Niger Delta region, particularly with the funds recorded from the kinsmen of the past President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
“Mr. President, the six years under Former President Goodluck Jonathan were years of holocaust for the people of Niger Delta.
“While the few known ‘Jonathan boys’ were made stupendously rich without known sources of livelihood, the majority of the Niger Delta people were subjected to sad ends along the uncompleted East-West road, poor power generation and installations of political power brokers without democratic values.
“Mr. President, I challenge Dr. Jonathan to point at one individual in BayelsaState and even in Ijaw land in particular, that he can boldly claim to haveempowered throughout his tenure outside his Ogbia enclave.
“This selfish tendency is not part of an Ijaw man, who today, is being recorded as having taken a slot at the Presidency and even being called names as his kinsmen. What an irony of fate!
“For instance, the cache of looted funds allegedly recovered from Mr. George Turner and Mr. Robert Azibaola by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has put a question mark on the integrity of an average Ijaw man in the country.
“Does one even need to talk about the alleged huge financial transactions involving Mrs. Patience Jonathan?
“Mr. George Turner is a 34years old godson of Goodluck Jonathan, was a Presidential political appointee attached to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). The decision by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to uncovered N2 billion in his account shocked many in the State.
“Following the discovery, operatives of the EFCC arrested Turnah in Port Harcourt, Rivers State in connection with alleged possession of funds running into N2 billion, suspected to be funds siphoned from the NDDC while serving there as an adviser and a close associate to former President Jonathan”.
“Take a look at another case of Mr. Robert Azibaola, a cousin to former President Goodluck Jonathan.He is in court and under investigation for collecting over $40million that was paid to his company, OnePlus Holdings Limited. He and his wife, Stella are standing trial over alleged receipt of billions of naira from the arms funds from the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.”
“Under the Jonathan’s administration, there was affirmed impunity. The same Robert Azibola, owner of Kakatar Construction and Engineering Company, became a serial conduit pipe for monies on abandoned road projects in Abuja and different parts of the Niger Delta.”
“While he is under investigation, he merely rushed to commence work on the Apo-Karshi road, in the Nigeria’s capital. The road, which is worth N6.4billion and was designed to ease the gridlock at the AYA-Nyanya-Mararaba section of the Abuja-Keffi road that links the Abuja metropolis with some densely populated satellite towns including Karshi, and neighbouring Nasarawa State, was abandoned.”
“Robert Azibola, inspite of being from Ogbia stock of Bayelsa State, also provoked his people from the Okoroba community in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, to protest against his acts of abandoning road.There is one King A. J. Turner alias Obigbo Mikimiki who is one of the greatest benefactors of Dr. Jonathan’s largess by way of contracts and other forms of empowerment. Some of these contracts are yet to be executed, according to reports.”
“Besides the Turners, there is Dr. Azibabu Eruane whose sudden rapport with Dr. Jonathan as president has now remained questionable. Today, he prides himself a successful business man with copious diversification of companies and houses in Bayelsa, Abuja and Lagos”.
“Mr. President, Dr. A. Eruane is a medical doctor who was the State commissioner for Health under former Governor Timipre Sylva for about four years. Apart from the myriad of companies in his kitty, Dr. Eruane today boasts of fleet of helicopters, cars and planes. He is currently constructing a Modula private refinery in Bayelsa.”
“Your Excellency, before I am misunderstood, let me say that my comment is not out of envy or jealousy, but purely based on public interest and the untoward manner with which the former President exclusively deployed Nigeria’s wealth to the empowerment of his kinsmen only, leaving the rest Bayelsans to be wallowing in abject poverty. What an injustice.”
