Posted by The Port Harcourt Telegraph on
As the dust stirred last week over the allegations levied against the Rivers State governor, Dr. Peter Odili settles, and the EFCC gets ready to investigate, there are growing signals what may be happening might have political undertones.
As the dust stirred last week over the allegations levied against the Rivers State governor, Dr. Peter Odili settles, and the EFCC gets ready to investigate, there are growing signals what may be happening might have political undertones.
Odili has been accused of misappropriating the sum of N1.2 billion, salting away the sum of N950 million in a Lagos bank and owning two islands in France and the Caribbean as well as a high-brow estate in West London.
Sources in Abuja said the scandalous allegations which made headlines may have been part of a carefully concocted plan by a group that now believes it is time to halt Odili's alleged presidential ambition.
Said a well placed Abuja politician who doesn't want his name in print, "Odili's alleged bid is giving several persons sleepless nights, and his closeness to the president isn't something to overlook either as the race to the presidency opens."
"The group", he went on, "has collaborators within the state and in the South-South who are dissatisfied with the governor and who reason they would become more irrelevant politically if Odili moves up the political ladder."
The plan, those who spoke with the Telegraph revealed, had two basic objectives.
The first move, they say, was to thoroughly embarrass the Rivers governor and achieve the second objective, that of distancing him from the president.
Surprisingly, there is talk of a petition against Odili but there is no evidence the EFCC has really received such a petition.
Sir Austin Opara, Deputy Speaker House of Representatives in a chat with the Telegraph dismissed claims the EFCC is investigating.
His words, "There is no evidence before us that the EFCC has received any petition against our governor."
Opara agreed the whole thing is a smear campaign, saying the "people behind this know where they got their story from."
He said that council chairmen in Rivers State had come out strongly with an explanation that shows Odili had not been tampering with funds meant for third tier administrations.
Incidentally, it has been known at the level of the national caucus of the party that the Rivers State government is not among the family of governments that have been poaching from council funds.
So, are the allegations and the furor that it generated merely diversionary?
Austin Opara very much thinks so.
"It is a ploy to distract the attention of our home government and the governor in particular", Opara insists.
In Port Harcourt where Rivers people were urged to be the ultimate judges, the government's acclaimed spokesman, Magnus Abe said Odili was not afraid of any probe.
Picking holes in every allegation, Abe urged the EFCC to go ahead with the investigation and pleaded that the findings should be made public. Where all this will end is not as clear, but the confidence being exuded by the Rivers government is giving many here food for thought. But opponents of the administration maintain their cynicism, alleging government is only trying to act tough. Supporters of the administration appear optimistic nothing would come of the allegations.
They say after the entire thing Odili would come out clean and prove the point they've always made.