By Rukevwe Charles Ejovi
“A lie is like a snowball, it starts off small and then grows and grows until a point were it gets so big it falls apart and then the truth is discovered.” – Chris Hughes
The allegation of molestation against Delta’s biggest industrialist, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, has exposed and continues to unearth the workings of a dark underworld at play, which to a large extent is responsible for the backwardness haunting the development of the oil rich state.
This is a major concern which requires the attention of security agencies in the country, as oil companies and private businesses have been forced to abandon the state owing to the notorious activities of syndicates that specialise in blackmailing investors with the intent of extorting huge sums of money from them.
A group of lawyers, led by one Kunle Edun, during the wake of the allegations against Gbagi, had demanded a compensation to the tune of N1 billion naira. Most people at the time paid more attention to the web of lies which the group sold to unsuspecting Nigerians through various social media platforms, without due recourse to questioning the validity of their claims.
In other words, some Nigerians fell hook, line and sinker for their gimmick which obviously was to tarnish the image of the Former Minister of State for Education, following his decision to indicate interest in the 2023 governorship race.
However, the potency of their lies was to be short lived, as recent events have exposed them for who they really are: liars and blackmailers hiding under the garb of ‘activists’ to execute the bidding of their political paymasters for financial gains.
It was in fact gathered, that the lawyers fought amongst themselves in a bid to devise a sharing formula for the monies they received as payment from their sponsors who wanted Gbagi blackmailed. They also fought over monies released to organize the phony protests at the time.
The dirty details of their activities in view of the molestation allegation raises major concerns. If really they are activists, how come they were never seen championing the course of the #EndSars protest in Delta State? Why did they suddenly lost their voices in the face of the recent jungle justice being meted on thieves in Warri and its environs? Are the suspected thieves being burnt not humans with rights? Why are they yet to organize a protest to secure the rights of these persons condemned by mob violence so that they have their day in court? After all, this has always being about standing for Justice, hasn’t it?
There are very disturbing videos making the rounds on various social media platforms of residents of warri setting suspected criminals ablaze, which ordinarily ought to get the attention of human rights activists. How come they show no concern? This is not to mention other incidents of abuses such as rape and child slavery of the girl-child which pervades the state, and begs for attention.
It is clear that their actions were driven by certain motives which has come to light: to destroy Gbagi’s political career and extort huge sums of money from him in exchange to salvage whatever is left of his badly dented image. Unfortunately, they picked on the wrong person this time which caused their plans to backfire.
Efforts must therefore be made by our law enforcement agencies to investigate and bring to book such dubious characters before their notorious activities get out of hand. These political hirelings garbed as activists must be stopped and made to identify their sponsors, as they constitute a threat to the economic development of Delta State.
Rukevwe Charles Ejovi writes from Warri, Delta State.
