It’s not me! Gov Okowa cries over news that a gov lost $10m to his mistress

The Delta State government has cried out over an online report that links its governor, Ifeanyi Okowa as the one defrauded by a mistress to the tune of $10 million.

The state government said that Okowa is not the serving governor from the South-South region whose girlfriend defrauded him of $10million bailout fund the Federal Government gave to the state chief executives to offset salaries of workers.

A report in a Nigerian national newspaper had last week claimed that a governor is under probe after the sum of $10million he diverted from the bailout funds allocated to his state was hijacked by his mistress.

The governor, who was said to have commissioned his mistress to help him launder the said sum, was defrauded when she refused to remit it in the slush accounts the governor provided.

While the paper never mentioned any governor’s name in its report however, an online newspaper in its follow up on the story was said to have alleged that Okowa was the governor from the South-South the story was referring to.

But reacting, Delta State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Patrick Ukah, said in a statement he made available to newsmen that it was never Okowa who lost $10million to a girlfriend.

The statement read, “We are appalled by the attempt to link Governor Okowa with the story by online media. We find it ridiculously tasteless and mischievous. This can only be part of the unrelenting campaign of calumny and the ceaseless peddling of pernicious propaganda against the person and the office of the Delta State governor.

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“For the record, the state government has several times in the past given account of how the bailout the state got from the Federal Government was used. We will not repeat ourselves here.

“Governor Okowa is a responsible family man and a well-respected public figure. His preoccupation has been and continues to be how to deliver on his promised S.M.A.R.T agenda to the good people of Delta State since he came to office. And he has received applause and commendations from far and near for being so focused and unrelenting in the pursuit of his vision for the state.”

The statement further cautioned masterminds of the allegation to cease from what it said is a devious and dubious campaign of calumny against Okowa, adding that should they refuse to stop “this infamous trade of theirs, we reserve the right to take any action deemed appropriate to seek redress.”

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