The Ozoro Progress Union (OPU) Executive members, the apex administrative organ of Ozoro kingdom and the President General, Odio Beckley Asiafa, over alledge greviances ranging from high handedness and usurping of other elected officers duties by the PGs personal secretary.
The allegations also include alledged compromising of OPUs official documents, inappropriate allotment of slots of Tantita Security Services Nig. Ltd and diversion of the proceeds from the kingdom’s assets.
Insider sources accused the PG Odio of failing and in defiance of advices and voices of reasoning on the removal of his personal secretary, one Joy Johnson, alleged as the perpetrator and arrow head of the maladminisration of the PG amongst other complaints.
Speaking to our reporters, another insider who do not want his name on print for fear of victimisation, alledged “that the community had maintained a bank account but did not have any money to the community’s credit anywhere ”
He added that “under the Asiafa’s regime, things have changed, particularly the non uniformity of the rent from hiring the Opute Hall against the statutory fixed amount as well as the proceeds from such hirings going into private hands”.
It was further alleged that “the PG’s personal secretary has become so powerful to the extent of being placed in charge of all income generating assets of the kingdom; usurping the functions of other elected executive officers, which the PG made possible”.
According to very reliable inside sources, “the job slot opportunities provided by Tantita Security Ltd were reportedly distributed arbitrarily by Asiafa, with his personal secretary; a non indegene contrary to the practice of the Union.
The secretary is alledged to having two slots from the 34 slots awarded to the kingdom, equal with the elected officers.
When contacted Odio Asiafa explained that , “I find some of those write up very funny because if you are not close to people you will never understand them but thank you for even letting me know that some people have this opinion in the kingdom. But I am hundred percent sure of the person that did all these things. One, he must be a member of my exco or two, a member of the former exco”.
“Number one, we don’t have drilling in Ozoro. So if I’m not prudent, the little money we get from Opute hall and rent, we will run into problems. To take care of this kingdom, to take care of the people, to take care of salaries and other recurrent expenditure is almost a million Naira plus every month and hardly do we meet up.
“Sometimes, we have to go borrowing to pay, then when something comes l, we pay back. So if I don’t run the Kingdom like that, we will run into big problem. A lot of people just think when we come up, it is an avenue to make plenty of money.
“Oh let’s make money, oil drilling is around and go”. So when we don’t have a rig coming in yet, a lot of people are disappointed that we are not making enough money just the way the last one did. So that is the problem with some of the excos and some people in some families.
“We’ve been on for a year and six months and we don’t have drilling coming in. Ozoro kingdom does not get money from any company monthly; we don’t get money from NNPC monthly. We look for money to run the Kingdom and where do we get the money? My personal Gift?. People come visiting me; they give me kola, they give me money, they support kola for me and I use all that to run the Kingdom and take care of myself.
“The renting of Opute hall which is N250,000 and it is not that we get all the weekends every month. It might be two times in a month or once a month. The outside wing is N60,000 while the inside is N250,000.
“The rent in the plazas, the one near Unity bank is N80,000/N100,000 and it is not fully booked. This other one behind Opute is something else. People don’t stay there and the place is not really moving. So, it is less than N100,000 a year.
“So where do we get money from? Plants, gifts and sometimes I have to send my Secretary General to even borrow. I have to tell my Vice, “ please give us some money , we will give you back when we have”, that is how we have been running the government. I can’t meet anybody for money except my EXCO or when the information gets out, it will be very bad. But so far so good, we are expecting SEPCO and Sterling Global to come and start drilling.
On the allegations concerning his personal secretary, the PG stated that “Another aspect is my personal secretary as it is called, the Secretary is not Ozoro’s Secretary. It is President General’s Secretary; confidential Secretary. In the constitution of Ozoro, any person that is born by an Ozoro father and mother, Father or mother-in-law, By marriage; is an Ozoro citizen.
“My personal Secretary has 3 children for an Ozoro man. She schooled in this Ozoro. Their father is from Ozoro; from Erovie, meaning the woman is an Ozoro woman. Even if she is from Kwale, who have children for an Ozoro man from Erovie , she is an Ozoro person. It is in the constitution of Ozoro.
“Before I even took her, I went to the constitution of people who call themselves citizens of this kingdom. Her children are Ozoro, her man is an Ozoro man, so she is an Ozoro woman.
“Then you talked about the money we realize from Opute hall. The money is paid directly into the community account. Because she is the Secretary, she is always in the office. From 9am-5pm. We don’t stay in the office everyday. It will be proper when people go to the hall or the small one, they should meet somebody. One of the reasons I said she should be in the office to take care of people coming to do attestation; to book any of the halls and to pay the rent into Opute account in any of the account in Zenith bank, First Bank or Unity bank.
“That is her job. To be in the office, Monday to Friday, 9 o’clock. So she is not the one controlling the Opute hall because she must call me “ oga somebody want to pay for the hall”. I will write it in my diary, the particular date, then instruct the person to pay the money into our account. After the payment, I will now call her back to issue the receipt.
“The money does not go to her at all. I can’t remember any money going to her. We don’t have money, we don’t have drilling, we don’t have enough money to run the Kingdom. So why allow somebody to take money from that place? Tufiakwa.
“Then you talked about Tantita Security Services Nig. Ltd. Yes when Tantita came, you know, the salary I was paying her was N30,000. She was the only girl in the office. Since she was responsible for cleaning the office, buying soap, buying toiletries and co, we now felt, okay, if we don’t pay her, if we put her in Tantita pay roll, she will be able to buy broom, tissue paper, soap for the cleaning of the offices and the staircase and everything. But after two months, Tantita Security Services Nig. Ltd now said “No, a woman can not go to the pipeline.
“So since last year, Tantita removed her name. In all, the 34 people that did that broad, she has no slot at all. Not one. She doesn’t even know any person. They removed Newyear, Jahswill and her. They were in Tantita before but they removed everybody. They even removed the person Egware brought.
“I didn’t bother because Tantita explained to me. The people in Tantita; I told my EXCOS to bring one person, I checked the Kingdom and vulnerable people, old Chiefs to bring one person. The Youth President then had 2-3 slots, Ewheyalogbo of Ozoro kingdom brought two people and Opasco brought 2-3 people at the regime of Tantita. Me as PG, I brought my brother, my cousin brother. So let nobody say that she has two slots or half slot. She has no slot with Tantita. Those are lies.
“A personal Secretary or a confidential Secretary is someone that can keep secrets of what we did in the kingdom. There are so many reasons to employ a Confidential Secretary. We have the negative things of employing somebody that is confidential and someone that is open. We have the choice of taking someone who can leak documents while typing information to the outside world and people that can keep such. It is the right of the PG to pick who can keep vital information of the Kingdom from the outside world.
“That is one of the reasons. So my Secretary has no powers to challenge any of my exco members. The only thing is that some people in the kingdom, instead of coming to see me to get information from me, they will go to my Secretary to try to get information from her and when she gets hostile, they tag her as a bad person.
“I know one, two, three persons that approached her, trying to bribe her with money to get letters or information about certain things in the kingdom and she refused. In so doing, most people want her dead. Most people want her head cut off. Most people want her sacked. But in most cases, as an Odio who has seen so many cases for the past 9 years, I check merits and demerits of every complain before I take decisions.
“I have been dealing with so many things in the kingdom you know, as an Odio who has wisdom. We have so many problems in the kingdom especially with oil families. I know what to do. But they always say, “if you are a Warrior, show your strength outside your home. Not your home.
“I am someone who has contacts everywhere but I use my contacts for positive things not negative things. If I am someone who has contacts everywhere, from Police, Army, Navy, everything because I know you know by now most of my friends who went to the Army, they got to the rank of General. Most of my classmates, they got to the rank of IG and AIG. They might not be in service now because they are all retired because they are all above 60 which is my age group.
They have children who are in power now but I can’t use such to oppress my people because I came to develop Ozoro. I came to do infrastructure. I cane to develop schools, give scholarships and not to fight people.
” I am a soft person. If you see me, I don’t carry security men. I don’t have boys who will follow me anywhere I go to. In most cases, when you see me outside in parties, I walk alone just with my PA because I’m a simple man. So, let nobody come to the kingdom to say I stole money or my Secretary stole money, my Vice or my Secretary General or my Assistant Secretary General.
“I just saw something that I gave the work of some EXCO members to my Secretary. Apart from the work of Opute hall, what other work does she do? That work was given to Odiri, my daughter who died last year. We gave it to Odiri and Odiri did it effectively, efficiently. When we lost her, I gave it to Geneza but Geneza was not readily available.
“There was one issue. Geneza is my cousin from Adokpe. Geneza is my younger brother from Adokpe. We are from the same Adokpe family. He is my blood. To avoid scandal, to avoid quarrel, I took it from Geneza and gave it to my Secretary. Transparency because when I gave it to Geneza a lot of people were raising eyebrows that I empowered my junior brother and co. I now said okay. I left Geneza who is my younger brother I now said let me do it myself and I have been doing it myself. There is no money coming from it that is leaking anywhere because they pay directly into Opute account in Zenith bank or in Unity bank. So I didn’t give anybody job.
The PG added that, “Assistant Secretary is where we have loads of Secretary General’s work; writing of minutes or representing the Secretary General or representing me in places. You know, I called Godwin Ewhorefa to do it. Edomoye is fine in Asaba. In most cases when we have anything in Asaba, I call him. Robinson is always in town. I am not saying I am 100% perfect. While calling for caution, he said “I have Ozoro constitution with me. Let every member of the exco read their functions- what they are suppose to do. Let them read it. I am very very experienced and learned. I have worked in government and in private sector. Let every person read his or her functions in that Ozoro book-our laws.
“I’m not doing anybody’s job. My confidential Secretary is not doing anybody’s job. I’m the one handling Opute hall. Apart from handling Opute hall, I don’t see anything she is doing. Giving letter of attestation to people is Secretary General’s not PG’s work. It is suppose to be Secretary’s job. Secretary General is in charge of that.
“What else is she doing? Putting on generator, typing of letters, receiving information for me and co. What else is she doing in the kingdom? Please eh, people should not spoil me. I just think there is a Jezebel somewhere trying to put problem in a place where we do not have any problem. The reason I said ask the Vice President, ask Secretary General, ask Assistant Secretary General, ask any person, ask Jege and Co.
“Some people just feel, oh the last regime, money was coming in from the rig” but I keep saying it, no money come from Okpaile. Since I entered this regime I have not received N1,000 from Okpaile. I have not. NPDC Warri have not paid Ozoro kingdom N1,000.
“Some people feel we get monthly allocation from Okpaile or from NPDC Warri or the state government. I source for money 100% to run this kingdom. It is from this agreed money that we sat down in Ozoro conference and we said any person buying property in this kingdom should pay some percentage. We started from saying let’s pay 20%, some people said 10%, some said 8% while others said 7%.
“But at the conference where we had the 5 organs of the kingdom, we all agreed that for any person to buy a property which is called Physical and Structural Planning fee, the person should pay 10% of the sum of that property. That is not the deve government banned o. This one is for the IGR of the kingdom where we get money to run the Kingdom and that office is the office of the Town Planner not PG. It is only when the Town Planner has issues that I will step in.
“Everybody in Ozoro came together in our conference. I am sorry for those who did not attend the conference but we came together as a kingdom and we agreed that any property sold, 10% of the money should be paid into the kingdom’s account for the day to day running of the kingdom.
That is not the deve government banned. Government banned a situation where youths or five people from the street or Chiefs or Edio will go and harass people, companies, investors who came to Delta State to develop the state but this one we all agreed.
