DELTA, JANUARY 28, 2017 – Members of two organizations made up of indigenes of Delta State, the Diaspora United Against Looters (DUAL) and Urhobo New Face (UNF), have called on Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies to arrest former Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan and commence his prosecution.
In a statement forwarded to media organisations, the groups alleged that Mr. Uduaghan, a medical doctor by profession, stole as much as N800 billion belonging to Delta State.
“As responsible citizens of Nigeria and indigenes of Delta State, we have watched for months, waiting for when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) will swoop in on the immediate past Governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, following his massive looting of the State, to the tune of N800 billion, which is still in his custody as a person and through fronts,” the organizations stated.
Those who signed the statement include Eyimofe Pemu and Fejiro Oliver. The groups said their contention that Mr. Uduaghan stole N800 billion was not an allegation but “facts, backed with documents and authoritative information [at] our disposal,” adding that the former governor’s tenure
“brought pains and miseries to Deltans, with nothing tangible to show for the over N2 trillion he received in eight wasted years in office.”
According to the groups, Mr. Uduaghan committed most of the crimes that former Governor James Ibori was arrested and jailed for. Mr. Ibori, who preceded Mr. Uduaghan in office, was in December 2016 released from jail in Britain after serving a 13-year sentence for laundering public funds through British banks and other financial institutions.
DUAL and UNF alleged that Mr. Uduaghan, who served as Secretary to the State Government (SSG) under Mr. Ibori’s administration, was behind Mr. Ibori’s crimes. The groups added that Mr. Ibori’s wife implicated Mr. Uduaghan in a statement she made to the EFCC.
“We are at [a] loss on why a man [who] not only aided the crimes of Ibori but was the de facto governor under him is still breathing the air of freedom, while Deltans languish in pain,” the groups asserted.
“We are not laying any allegations against him, but speaking authoritatively that the Excess Crude Account money of N289 billion given to the State by the Goodluck Jonathan administration was diverted by Uduaghan, with no trace today,” said the statement.
The groups declared that they would not let Mr. Uduaghan go scot-free. They accused the former governor of using a mistress he reportedly nicknamed “My Bulldozer,” to bribe “some unpatriotic EFCC officials in Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt.”
They added: “With all the loads of documents submitted to the EFCC office, we find it alarming that he has not been made to answer [for] his crimes, but walking about boasting that ‘this is Nigeria and I am not Ibori who allowed himself to be caught like a chicken and jailed by UK.’”
The two groups declared their resolve as “Diaspora persons based in Spain, Canada, USA, Austria, Dubai, Germany, Switzerland, China, South Africa, Dublin and United Kingdom in conjunction with patriotic Deltans based in Nigeria to stage a global protest across the mentioned countries” demanding the withdrawal of Mr. Uduaghan’s visas and international prosecution if
the former governor steps foot in any of the countries “where he goes to enjoy our wealth.”
The Deltan groups also threatened to launch widespread protests at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja to compel the anti-corruption to arrest and investigate Mr. Uduaghan, his wife, mistress and daughter “for the crimes committed as SSG and rape of treasury of our dear state as Governor.”
The groups said they had hard evidence to prove the former governor’s looting of state funds, adding that they were ready to furnish the EFCC with a list of witnesses against Mr. Uduaghan and members of his inner circle.
The groups said they were away of the negative image of being a state that sent two former governors to jail, adding that they were “ready to set such
precedent” to deter incoming governors from looting the public treasury.
They noted that Mr. Uduaghan used to be a man of modest circumstances who drove a Beetle Volkswagen car, wondering how the former governor earned funds to afford mansions all over Nigeria, “including the
prestigious Banana Island, where he trains crocodiles.” They described as shameful that the people of Delta State would “allow a man who came into office very poor [to] suddenly become a multi-billionaire” via looting.
The petition stated, “We reject completely the culture of extravagant looting of our wealth by [a] few persons like Uduaghan and his family.
“We refuse as a group and people a man whose wife came into Government House as a pauper but left with state-of-the-art Master Care Group of schools worth over a billion naira and built on a stolen state land as well as Otres Fast Food all over the country.
“For every property gotten via government funds, this protest will call for its forfeiture as was done to the late Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.
“We reject completely a family system of looting where Uduaghan’s daughter was bathed with the state wealth which made her own a home now valued at N800 million in Lekki, Lagos State, from proceeds of the failed Oleri Pleasure Park that has no single building yet N6 billion was spent on it by his father.”
The statement urged all Deltans massively mobilize and demand the prosecution of Mr. Uduaghan and the recovery of all state assets he sold to friends and family members, the wealth he accumulated from state funds, all “illegal acquisitions by Uduaghan, his wife, Mistress (Juliet Mowarin) and family members.”
