Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secret Reporters
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa is currently in Lagos State to receive the Daily Independent Newspaper Man of the Year award, but this medium can authoritatively reveal that the Man of the Year award was not won by Okowa during the final selection.
Secret Reporters gathered on good authority that during the meeting held by the Editorial Board of Daily Independent, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos won the Independent Man of the Year award during the voting, but his name was changed and Okowa’s name announced. This move according to our sources within the newspaper was to make the Delta State Governor embrace the medium and give them enough patronage, as a paper owned by a Deltan. To compensate Ambode for the loss, he was given the Governor of the Year Award.
To attend the award, we gathered from Government House sources that a private jet with flight No-N770ms was chartered from Abuja to ferry the Governor and his entourage to the event. Other key members of the government went through Benin Airport on commercial flight. The names of those on-board the flight obtained by this newspaper was not dropped at the airport, as the Pilot forgot to do so.
Those on the trip also included members of the State House of Assembly and National Assembly members representing the State. Only the member representing Ika Federal Constituency, Anthony Nwokolo joined the private jet.
When asked why Okowa was not initially chosen as the Man of the Year award, considering the water storm project which he’s audaciously embarking on to combat the Asaba flood, a key staff of the newspaper who spoke on camera noted that “As at when we were picking names, Okowa wasn’t constructing the storm water project yet. We only picked based on existing projects then which Ambode was leading, but we cannot leave our Governor and give another governor our award. What if other newspapers don’t give him such awards before he leaves office? We are simply honoring our own. But you will also agree with us that he has done well in terms of infrastructure considering the lean resources available to him, unlike Ambode that has huge money at his disposal to work”.
