*Gbagi: Taiga-led Leadership ‘ll Pay Dearly for its Action
* UPU Sec Gen, Youth Leader Disclaim Endorsement…
*Majemite: Taiga-led Leadership’s Action Inconsequential…
*UPU Legal Adviser: Taiga Stands Suspended!
Following a purported endorsement of Chief David Edevbie as a UPU consensus candidate for the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) ticket by the Olorogun Moses Taiga’s led leadership of UPU and his cohorts, facts have emerged that there is currently a sharp division among the executive of the umbrella body of the Urhobo nation just as 10 PDP governorship aspirants of Urhobo extraction are said to have reunited, seemingly knocking off Edevbie in the power dynamics ahead of the scheduled PDP primary.
The New Diplomat investigation s reveal that apart from the fact that about 10 PDP governorship aspirants have vowed that Edevbie, a former Delta state finance Commissioner, “would not even secure up to 10 votes in the PDP primary”, the aspirants have vowed to open the Pandora Box to “ unveil how David Edevbie badly managed the Finances of Delta state and threw Delta state into pitiable and avoidable sea of debts leaving the treasury of the state in tatters, shambles between 1999 and 2007.”
Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, one of the PDP governorship aspirants who spoke with The New Diplomat maintained that the action of the current leadership of UPU led by Taiga would lead to self destruct as Taiga and his cohorts have no backing of the Urhobo people on this and cannot go far.
Though it could not be independently verified and authenticated as at press time, checks reveal that about #100million was purportedly paid to induce a section of the current UPU leadership to endorse Edevbie, an allegation that has further triggered massive polarization within the PDP while fueling concerns that the Edevbie group is too desperate to reverse the hand of the historical clock that will throw the State negatively backwards rather negatively.
It would be recalled that In a well-advertised release purportedly signed by the President-General, Olorogun Moses Taiga and other members of his executive, published in some national dailies on Sunday, the UPU had in paragraph 9, said that it “reached a consensus that Olorogun David Edevbie is the best persons for the job at this time”, adding that “over time, he has acquired impressive public sector experience, both locally in Delta State and Federal government, and prior outstanding international development finance experience.”
The UPU had further pleaded with Governor Okowa to forgive Edevbie for whatever misdeeds he might have done in the course of his work. In a swift reaction, Chief Fred Majemite, a frontline PDP governorship aspirant of Urhobo extraction dismissed the purported endorsement of Edevbie as a farce with no consequence and effect, highlighting the point that in the past, this same UPU endorsed Edevbie but was defeated by Gov Okowa. He added that in 1999, Joe Omene led leadership of UPU endorsed Chief Great Ogboru but was defeated by Chief James Ibori.
In another dimension, The New Diplomat sources revealed that the publication by the Taiga led leadership of UPU did not receive a unanimous approval of the UPU executive. The UPU Youth Wing Special Adviser, Mr. Ochuko Okagbare in a press release denied any knowledge of a meeting with the Ovie Ebireri-led youth body where such a decision by the UPU Executive was initiated and concluded.
“To the best of my knowledge the UPU Youth Wing Executives ably led by Comr. Ebireri Ovie never attended any meeting or received any information that the Umbrella body of Urhobo people (UPU) Endorsed or Screened any political aspirant ahead of party primaries”, Okagbare said. A source also stated that the National Secretary of the UPU expressed surprise at the endorsement, saying he was not aware of any such meeting where the decision to pick Edevbie as a consensus candidate of the body.
The New Diplomat’s investigation further reveals that, following the publication of the position of the UPU, at least ten of the PDP governorship aspirants, most of whom have bought, filled and returned their Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms, are already meeting, collaborating and strategizing to ensure that Edevbie does not score even 10 votes from delegates during the forthcoming primary of the party scheduled to hold next month.
Meanwhile, in a sharp reaction to the publication, the National Legal Adviser to the UPU, Isaacs Itebu Esq, posted on his verified Facebook page a denunciation of the purported publication endorsing Edevbie. He said that the President-General, Olorogun Moses Taiga has been suspended, adding that the publication should be disregarded.
He wrote inter alia: “A faction of Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, led by Olorogun Moses Taiga, is currently exhibiting its madness by endorsing an aspirant of a political party in a primary election.
“Is UPU a political party? Is UPU or Olorogun Moses Taiga a PDP delegate in the forthcoming coming PDP primary elections?
“Please disregard the odious nonsense coming out from the Olorogun Moses Taiga faction’’, he added.
“As we speak, we are holding consultation that Edevbie should not get even 10 votes from the delegates. By the way, who is Edevbie? Those of us who know him can tell you that somebody is just hyping his profile because he wants to use him… David was a very low rank finance officer in a financial institution in the UK when he was brought to become a Commissioner of finance in Delta state without any experience. Unlike in some other States like Lagos, where you had finance Commissioners been appointed after attaining the top management level in their career, David’ s case was not so. He was a low rank finance officer working in an affiliate body of the world bank…with no experience before he was brought to Delta state. In Delta state, he ran the finances of the state aground….with debts!
“We are now firm and resolute to work together so that one of us will emerge in PDP as the party’s governorship candidate and we are ready to back that person up and not David Edevbie. We are more than ever determined to work as a team to produce one of us as PDP candidate for the guber elections.”
Speaking further with The New Diplomat on phone, one of the PDP governorship aspirants who was among the three selected by the DC-23, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, stated that the Moses Taiga-led leadership Is indeed on a journey of self-destruct, adding that “they will pay a capital price for it.”
According Gbagi, the UPU has once endorsed him before now but he did not opt for an advertorial in the media. He however noted that the body, by endorsing anybody at this material time, only made a joke of the whole exercise. He alluded to the fact that somebody somewhere is forcing Taiga and his cohorts to do whatever they are doing now.
He said: “UPU has endorsed me before, although I did not go for an advertorial. What the UPU is doing now makes no meaning; it only makes a joke of it. What they are doing now is the same thing they have done in 2015. That is why the organization is going into extinction. They will pay a capital price for it.”
Also reacting to the purported endorsement, Olorogun Fred Majemite, a governorship aspirant on the platform of the PDP doubted the authenticity of the publication saying that it may have emerged from a segment of the UPU. According to him, the President-General at the moment is indisposed, adding that the Secretary-General and the Youth Leader of the Union have declared that they were not aware and they were not part of it.
Majemite also confirmed that he heard that money exchanged hands to facilitate the UPU endorsement but he is yet to verify that story. “I heard that some money passed hands but to who and from who, I don’t know”, Majemite added.
From the foregoing insightful statistical data, the political dynamics in the PDP would be intriguing and interesting in the days ahead!
