GREAT OVEDJE OGBORU AND POLITICAL DETRACTORS

                         Great Ogboru, DPP Governorship candidate
 Great Ovedje Ogboru should not listen to the voice of his political detractors who have branded him a serial loser and give up his governorship ambition in Delta State. This is a calculated attempt by his political arch-rivals to wage a psychological war against him in order to discourage him from pursuing his case at the Supreme Court to reverse its decision on the April 26, 2011 governorship election or contest the 2015 governorship election. Great Ogboru (a.k.a. The People’s General) had contested the governorship seat three times with huge successes! This is because with each election, Ogboru gathered more popularity, followership and votes.

His fame spread across the state like wide fire in harmattan and brought his political party, Democratic People’s Party (DPP) into fame. Ogboru started his governorship quest in 2003 with victory. In the 2007 governorship election, Great Ovedje Ogboru was the man to beat but election didn’t hold in the state and a winner was announced in Abuja contrary to the practice of announcing the winner in the state. Meanwhile, Ogboru went to the Election Petitions Tribunal and after three and half years of legal battles, Ogboru, was vindicated that election didn’t hold in Delta State as the Supreme Court invalided the election of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan! As we all know, the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) under Prof. Maurice Iwu was highly corrupt. It is a fact that nine governors including Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan and others who came to power under Prof. Maurice Iwu’s INEC, were unseated by the Supreme Court because of electoral fraud! It was certain that Great Ogboru would have won with a landslide if election was held in Delta State! The 2007 elections were widely condemned by both local and international observers. The European Union observers described the elections as “the worst they had ever seen anywhere in the world”, with rampant vote rigging, violence, theft of ballot boxes and intimidation”. From all indications, Great Ogboru won the 2011 governorship election in Delta State. This is because as the Election Tribunal was sitting at Asaba, a member, Hon. Justice Ayo Abisoye who was seen as an incorruptible woman who would not sell her conscience for a morsel of bread, was suddenly removed by the powers that be! However, immediately Hon. Justice Abisoye was removed, the Tribunal delivered its judgment in a questionable manner that left tongues wagging across the state because the people knew who they voted for. Nevertheless, Great Ogboru headed to the Appeal Court which also delivered an unthinkable judgment without giving the reasons for its decision when it knew that election petitions had a time limit of 180 days! Great Ogboru, the generalissimo who has never lost any battles in his life, went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court subsequently stroke out the case for falling outside the time limit of 180 days stipulated by the 2010 Electoral Act to hear election petitions. The shocker in the Ogboru’s case is that it is similar to that of Kebbi State which the Supreme Court voided and asked INEC to conduct a re-run election! The question many Nigerians are asking is, why did the Supreme Court punish Great Ogboru for the mistake of the Appeal Court that did not give reasons for its judgment when it knew that the case has a time-span? Why will any sane person call Great Ogboru a serial loser? From the above analysis, has Ogboru lost any elections since 2003? Great Ogboru has only contested the governorship election three times and won in all. Those calling Great Ogboru a serial loser are not abreast with the history of world politics, if not they would have known that Mr. Abraham Lincoln, contested the American presidency sixteen times before he eventually won the coveted seat. John Turmel (a.k.a.“The Engineer”), entered the Guinness World Records having contested elections 77 times without winning; which is the highest in the history of Canada. Great Ogboru is not a serial loser and can never be. Great Ogboru has only experienced temporary setbacks three times. A loser is a man who gives up his ambition because of difficulties but Great Ogboru has not given up his governorship aspiration to lead the Delta people from abject poverty in the midst of plenty to affluence. Great Ogboru has prayed the Supreme Court to reverse itself on its earlier decision so he can claim the mandate which the Delta people freely gave to him in the April 26, 2011 governorship election. Great Ogboru is optimistic that the Supreme Court that comprises men and women of integrity would rescind its earlier decision and declare him the dully elected governor of Delta State. If we are in a country where things are done decently and the votes of the people count, Great Ogboru would have completed his second tenure as governor of Delta State in 2011. How many governors, both past and present, have the kind of popularity and support which Great Ogboru has? But we are in a country where the votes of the people don’t count but money. Chief M.K.O. Abiola got the mandate of Nigerians to be their president but was denied by the powers that be. We all know that most people who occupy elective positions in this country don’t have the mandate of the people. Great Ogboru is not a serial loser but a winner anytime!