I have nothing to hide, says Okowa

Amid his arrest and detention by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the immediate past governor of Delta State, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, insists he has nothing to hide.

This was in response to the EFCC’s allegation that the former governor corruptly enriched himself and used state resources to acquire 80 per cent stake in Premium Trust Bank. He was also alleged to have diverted state resources to build housing estates and hotels in Asaba and Abuja for himself.

In a statement, yesterday, entitled ‘Okowa and EFCC: The Facts, The Fiction and The Fairy Tale’ by his media aide, Olisa Ifeajika, the former governor boasted that his governance of Delta between 2015 and 2023 was marked by fiscal discipline, prudent management of resources and excellent service delivery.

To buttress the above assertion, the statement noted: “The state won World Bank awards in Overall State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Programme (all DLIs), Fiscal Transparency and Accountability, Efficiency of Public Expenditure, and Debt Sustainability. Okowa is a man of unassailable integrity and we welcome any honest attempt to investigate his eight-year tenure as we believe it will vindicate his exemplary stewardship of the state.

“We know that the campaign of calumny against Okowa is at the behest of unscrupulous politicians, who see him as the biggest threat to their 2027 political aspirations. Instead of engaging in lies and propaganda, we urge these persons to work at winning the hearts and confidence of the people. Power resides in the electorate and they are the ones who determine who is to govern or represent them.”

The statement responded to all allegations against Okowa, despite that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) vice presidential candidate in 2023 had reportedly absolved himself of the offences imputed to him.

It decried media commentaries on Okowa’s arrest by EFCC, asserting that, with few exceptions, they fell short of the journalistic standards of factual reporting, fairness, balance and simple logic. “Most of these reports are riddled with outright lies, wild conjectures and unverifiable claims, with the unmistakable diabolical intent to beguile and incite the unsuspecting public against Okowa,” it added.

The statement urged the media to always abide by the ethics of the profession. “They should not allow themselves to continue to be used by desperate power-mongers whose stock-in-trade is to engage in political subterfuge, stoke the fires of hatred and foment crisis in the polity.”