AMBASSADORS OF THIEVES: HOW GOV. OKOWA AND DEPUTY PROTOCOL APPOINTEES RAKES MILLIONS FROM COMMUNITIES GOV. GIVES STAFF OF OFFICE TO THEIR KINGS AND ATTEND ANY EVENTS

Secret Reporters

Behind every Staff of Office given to any King in Delta State is a monumental fraud behind him, perfected by Special Assistants and Senior Special Assistants to the Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa and his Deputy, Kingsley Otuaro on Protocol, Secret Reporters can authoritatively report.

Our insiders within the government circle up to the kitchen cabinet revealed that those appointed as Protocols to Okowa and Otuaro are ready to die just to be on a trip with any of the duo during any project commissioning and giving of Staff of Office to a traditional ruler.

This attitude is common with the Deputy Governor’s office who has appointed very unqualified persons to man his protocol and media departments, knowledgeable sources revealed to us.

Our ever reliable sources confided in us that in the office of Otuaro, protocol appointees and officers who always go to community to find out preparation made towards receiving the Deputy Governor have turned the process into a money making business against the ethics and rules guiding them.

In December 2016, one Mr Franklin Bralade who is the Chief Protocol Officer(CPO) brought in from House of Assembly to the Deputy Governor’s office as CPO in collaboration with Daniel Okoh and Arnold Gbe from Ministry of Higher Education had gone to Onicha-Uku to make enquiries on what they have on ground to receive the Deputy Governor, but told them they are not yet prepared, hence he cannot come to give the Staff of Office. He requested that they give him N250,000 to settle some officials in the office to facilitate easy movement.

The community painfully tasked themselves to raise the money to give to him, which he shared with his unit members. The second time he went, he mandated them to give him N30,000 to fuel his car which they also gave him in tears. It is one of the poorest communities in Delta State with the indigenes living below N100 a day.

The trio collects moneys and gift items in the name of Deputy Governor convoy and corner all always

The security, bomb department and Press units are the usual names they use in extorting victims and who ever paid courtesy call on Otuaro must first settle them.

The office of Okowa is allegedly not immune to this executive fraud, as we gathered that most of the protocol appointees also engage in it whenever they are going to an event with the governor to coronate a king.

As customary in government, they also go to the communities where projects will be commissioned for surveillance and intelligence gathering and in the process force the community to give me huge sum of money to convince the governor that all is set for him to attend. Refusal to accede to their request especially from communities without influential politicians leads to threats by them and blacklisting the community as unsafe for the governor.

Few weeks ago, the Governor was billed to attend an event in Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE). The aides on protocol rushed to the venue and demanded for money from the University for logistics and were given. They also got hotel accommodation from the school to sleep in with their mistresses, but unfortunately for them, the Governor never showed up. It was one Winke from Government House that slept in one of the rooms that night, as he was asked to stay back by one of the SSA on Protocol.

When asked if Okowa is aware of this corrupt practices going on within his government, one of the source replied that “H.E can’t know about this. They just go to events before Governor come and begin to tag the chairs with names of dignitaries and bragging that without them, governor cannot come to an event”.

Calls placed to the Director of Protocol of Government House, Mr Ifeanyi Eboigbe was not picked. The Deputy Governor didn’t pick his call too just like his media aide.

To be continued…