Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secret Reporters
The power tussle for the councillorship seat in Ward 16, Ethiope local government, Delta state, is far from over as revelations made available to SecretReporters from a reliable source indicates that the present councilor Mr. Obkowe Brown is no less than a criminal as glaring evidence shows he connived with his father to forge the certificate they presented in a bid to win the councillorship seat.
SecretReporters has it on solid grounds that prior to the councillorship election conducted by DSIEC, the electoral umpire in Delta state, the nomination form meant to be presented to Hon. Ehwarieme Brain who was seeking reelection was hijacked by a prominent politician in the state due to his high influence in the internal affairs of the local government, and handed over to Mr. Obkowe Johnbull, father to the purported present counselor.
The criminality in the blood of the Obkowes did not take long to manifest as it was immediately discovered that the WAEC and Tax Clearance certificates presented by Mr. Obkowe Johnbull was a forgery. The forged certificates our reporter learnt was a clear duplicate of his son’s certificate with only the name changed.
On notification, the AIG Delta state swung into action and invited the principal of the school and Mr. Johnbull to the police station where they denied the allegation and Mr. Johbull claimed that he was not the councilor. Mr. Obkowe Johnbull further resorted to present his son as the purported councilor and owner of the alleged controversial documents.
It is pertinent to note that Mr. Obkowe Brown never appeared for the election primaries, never conducted any manifesto, not known politically in his ward and was never voted into office by any member of ward 16 in Ethiope LGA.
Reacting to the development, the aggrieved former councilor Hon. Ehwarieme Brain, who vowed to uphold justice by bringing the obkowes to book, using his lawyer wrote to the Delta State Board of Internal Revenue and they reacclaimed that the Tax Clearance certificate presented by the Obkowes was not issued by their authority thus proving that the certificate as tendered by Mr. Obkowe Brown, who now claims to be the actual councilor is a forgery.
SecretReporters learnt that Mr. Brown was arrested for forgery which is a criminal offence in Nigeria, interrogated and was later released by the Nigerian Police Headquarters in Asaba after his lawyer Barrister William fully aware of the gravity of the offense committed by Mr. Obkowe Brown stood in as a surety for him as against known legal practice.
According to our source the purported councilor Mr. Obkowe Brown never returned to the station and his lawyer who stood in as a surety is yet to produce him for prosecution as he keeps pleading to be given more time. The IPO in charge of the case Inspector Steve Odeh we also learnt is doing little or nothing about this unaccepted development in the criminality and rascality perpetrated by Mr. Obkowe brown, who is widely known to walk in the footsteps of his father.
