LAGOS DECEMBER 2ND (URHOBOTODAY)-My response to the ill-informed, misplaced and untrue comments made by Barr. Rockson Igelige on a pro-Isoko Facebook Forum, “Umeh Need Road” on the 27th day of November, 2013, is informed by the admonition by Edmund Burke that “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”. This rejoinder is significant to clear the air concerning the unfounded, inflammatory and misplaced remarks made by a Lawyer – a person who is expected to know better than spewing unsubstantiated claims.
In the ill-conceived and unsubstantiated comments, our dearly beloved Lawyer threw caution and professionalism to the gutters in his sinister ploy to disparage one of Isoko’s beloved and industrious sons, Zino Onaemo. Ordinarily, we would not have glorified Barr. Rockson Igelige with a response but for the sake of setting the records straight, I will educate, and not hate Mr. Igelige, although I am abreast of his grand design to unearth primordial and erroneous sub-political bigotry.
In his comments, Mr. Rockson Igelige declared and I quote:
“Zino Onaemor is collecting 20 million from DESOPADEC monthly for the past five years. As President Isoko of Youth. 160 million naira now from NPDC. Monthly as pipeline surveillance. How many of our leaders de share this money. It is time for action.”
In another comment, Barr. Rockson Igelige posited thus:
“NDDC contract to President, Isoko Youth – 250 million Desopadec – 60million.”
Before I begin to react to the above declarations, I strongly implore you to forgive Barr. Rockson Igelige’s poor command of English Language and his inability to properly make use of punctuation marks. Undisputedly, ugly predicaments like these hugely contribute to the reasons Lawyers are termed “Charge and Bail Lawyers”. How pathetic!
Now permit me to react to our Lawyer’s diatribes and tantrums, I pray. Having made such careless assertions, one would expect the maker to provide facts or compelling arguments to buttress his bogus claims but with amateurs, what you see is what you get. Contrary to what my learned friend said, save for the five million naira Christmas stipends which is usually shared amongst the three factional Presidents of Isoko Youth Body, Zino Onaemo has never enjoyed any patronage from Desopadec since he assumed duty as the Isoko Union President. It is highly mischievous for a man of Barr. Rockson Igelige’s standing to stand truth on its head by misrepresenting facts and figures which are in the public domain already.
The most laughable of this ill-fated smear attempt was my ‘Learned friend’s glaring inconsistency. In his first post, he wrote “Zino Onaemor is collecting 20million from. DESOPADEC”, in another post he said “…..DESOPADEC 60million”. This goof I bet wasn’t deliberate. It was a manifestation of a sinking man ready to drag others down with himself. A man who hates the progress of others and is allergic to truth.
DESOPADEC has a total of five ethnic groups under its coverage, is Mr. Igelige alleging also that this imaginary Sixty or twenty million naira is equally paid to youth Presidents of other ethnic nationalities or just an exclusive right of Mr. ONAEMOR or Isoko Youths body?
Every ethnic nationality under DESOPADEC has a Representative, did Mr. Igelige verify his spurious claim from the man representing Isoko in the commission before embarking in a public display of shame which no doubt will bring him to ridicule?
Barr. Rockson Igelige also went on to assert that Mr. Zino Onaemo has received One hundred and sixty million naira from NPDC. This is another lump of falsehood knowingly put together to rubbish the good name of Mr. Onaemo. It is pertinent to state in unequivocal terms that no such contract ever exists or existed. At this juncture, I challenge Barr. Rockson Igelige to provide any evidence of such contract.
It is also on record that Barr. Rockson Igelige alleged that Zino Onaemo has an ISOKO YOUTHS pipeline surveillance deal with NPDC wherein he has been receiving the sum of one hundred and sixty million naira monthly for the past five years. Except in the wild and substance abuse imaginations of anyone, this never happened.
Now let me explain further. One of my major worries is how poverty of the mind could this mercilessly embarrass a supposed UK- trained Lawyer. It is only glaring here that some people passed through school without the school actually passing through them. I tried to calculate what 160million will amount to if multiplied by 60. It runs into over a trillion naira. NPDC will run into bankruptcy if such an amount is given to youth presidents of all ethnic nationalities where they operate for doing virtually nothing.
In truth, there existed a surveillance contract but that contract was given to Isoko as a spill from the deal Tompolo brokered with the Federal Government of Nigeria. In the aforementioned contract, one hundred (100) slots were given to the Isoko people wherein youths from Isoko North and Isoko South filed the slots equally and they were paid thirty thousand naira each, monthly for the period of one year after which the contract was terminated by the Federal Government.
In the said contract, two Hilux vehicles were given to our client which he took one, gave the other to Mr. Julius Mallam-Obi who was the coordinator of the project in Isoko South. The facts are there while the aforementioned persons are alive to verify this claim.
The following persons; Saduana Uguru, Charles Itive, Solomon Uyeh, Inspector Odafe are natives of Oleh (Barr. Igelige’s home town) who participated in the project and were paid as at when due.
If I must educate my ‘Learned friend’ a little, NDPD is a subsidiary of NNPC owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria. It is not a charity organization which doles out money to people for doing next to nothing. Its mandate is petroleum exploration and production in five states namely; Delta, Rivers, Imo, Edo and Bayelsa with over 10,000 registered contractors providing one service or the other to the company. If Zino Onaemor is one of the contractors, it is strictly on his own connection and not that of any Youth body. NPDC doesn’t deal with youth bodies but the traditional rulers and Presidents-General of host communities.
I also challenge Barr. Rockson Igelige, to provide evidence to corroborate these claims. As a Lawyer, Barr. Rockson Igelige is expected to understand the dangers of defamation. While we anticipate such pieces of evidence, we have briefed our Lawyers to initiate a lawsuit against him forthwith.
In the spirit of good neighbourliness and even development in Isoko land, this sadist and the recalcitrant attitude must change. I advise our friend Barr. Rockson Igelige to join in the process of industrializing and rebuilding Isoko Land and Delta State in general.
We call for calm on the part of supporters of Mr. Zino Onaemor who obviously have been irked by the vexatious allegations made by the Isoko Lawyer who suddenly has developed a skill of maligning people.

God bless Nigeria. God bless Delta State, God bless the Isoko people and everyone else!

Signed:
Enereba Darlington, Esq.
For Mr. ZINO ONAEMOR