THE FIGHT FOR THE SOUL OF DESOPADEC

Basil Okoh

MaTaZ ArIsInG
Dallas, Texas

They say when mother cow munches grass, the calf watch and learn. When Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa left office as governor of Delta state, the EFCC arrested him and declared that N1.3 trillion was missing from the coffers of DESOPADEC. Now, long before he even leaves office, the Commissioners of the community remediation agency are not waiting for Dr. Okowa ‘s successor and protégé, Sheriff Oborevwori, to leave office before sounding the alarm of the plunder going on in DESOPADEC.

One of them from the Ndokwa axis toppled the table in an exposé of the theft and plunder going on at DESOPADEC under the Sheriff. The Commissioner berated other Commissioners during their board meeting recently for their complacency and inaction as the statutory monthly allocation to the agency is withheld for months and years without explanation from either the Finance Ministry or the governor.

DESOPADEC he declared, “was not set up to receive allocations on the pleasure and caprices of the governor. It’s allocations are statutory and should come monthly, just as the state government receives its own allocation from the federal government without fail”. For more than six months, DESOPADEC has not received its monthly allocation and has not been able to pay for capital projects or embark on new ones.

DESOPADEC it is now known, is owing for projects started over ten years ago. Budgets are drawn up every year but never implemented, because the statutory allocation are never released to the agency and nobody gives any explanations.

Needless to say that the blow-up caused shook everyone and caused an uproar in the board meeting with so many frustrated commissioners taking the side of their fellow board member. It was something every board member was hurting from but were unable to put voice to their anger and frustration. Cowardice rules the lives of political office appointees in Delta state, even the lives of members of the State Assembly. So silence and fear rules government and its agencies in Delta state, so it’s no surprise that this seeming rebellion in DESOPADEC caused an unprecedented uproar in Delta state government circles.

The meeting was adjourned abruptly after the disruptive exposé and the chairman of the board wasted no time to call the governor and tell him of the brewing rebellion in his hands. The governor, his big chest heaving in fury, promptly summoned a meeting of the DESOPADEC board for the next day at the EXCO chambers in Government House. The meeting the next day turned out to be a Chinese theatre of some sort. There cannot be Chinese theatre without a fight scene. And so the governor, chest pumping in anger, demanded to know the fool who dared question his actions. He didn’t waste time to take up the uppity commissioner.

When the man responded plaintively but firmly, governor Sheriff roared to shut him down. But the commissioner unfazed, responded strongly and the governor, now feeling challenged and insulted, felt a wire trip in his pride. He rose in majestic anger to teach our insouciant commissioner a lesson in subservience. The Sheriff sprang to his feet and rushed forward to aggress his commissioner. Other Commissioners, now greatly alarmed, sprang from their various seats to form a wall of protection in front of their colleague. It took courage and some strength to respectfully wrestle our guvnor away and stop him from giving the still unruffled commissioner a beating, a la Uvwie Motor Park, right there in the EXCO chambers of Government House.

Days after the spectacle, the governor announced a grudge N8 billion package for DESOPADEC to “pay off its debts”. But the agency was not set up to live on handouts from the governor, but on statutory allocations which should be forwarded monthly from the 13% monthly derivation allocation to the state. DESOPADEC is entitled to 50% of the value of that 13% allocation monthly as legal and binding obligation from the Delta state government.

So the state government, led by the governor commits an illegal breach every month it does not forward that allocation to DESOPADEC. When that due allocation to DESOPADEC is spent or withheld by the state government, it amounts to fraud.

For many years, the money has been remitted in bits or not at all and the Commissioners taking the bad cue from government misbehaviour, splash whatever is brought on frivolous expenditures or on themselves. It is so hard to believe the level of rust, disorderliness, impunity and disobedience to rules that has befallen Delta state. So hard to believe indeed that at the end of October 2025, there has been no capital budget releases to most ministries and agencies. So most government offices remain without activities and goals for most of the year. Dr. Okowa as governor thrived on this dissonance for the eight years of his tenure and the successor who watched him chew grass, is following in his ways.

But the sorry and shameful part of the story is that the communities, for whom the funds are set aside to remediate their environment from oil extraction activities are sitting possum, oblivious of the plunder going on in their name as allocations are plundered. It is pity indeed that the communities have never reached out forcefully to stop the monumental plunder of their entitled resources. They shy away from taking charge of their own community interests.

N1.3 trillion was missing in the books of DESOPADEC for which Okowa, whose community does not produce a barrel of crude, was arrested to give account. Now, again, with Sheriff, the sum is piling up.

God bless Delta State.
@basilokoh.

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