I’ll lead fight against Buhari if… –Kokori

Posted by admin Latest Politics Monday, August 31st, 2015

Written by: Ebenezer Adurokiya, Warri
Sunday, August 30, 2015

Fiery labour activist and former Secretary General of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG), Chief Frank Ovie-Kokori, has warned that he would personally lead a huge fight against the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari if it becomes obvious that he is reneging on the oath he took to protect the constitution of the country.

The septuagenarian said that after about a year or two, if it became obvious that Buhari was deliberately neglecting the people nay the South by being unjust and unfair in infrastructural development and appointments, he would personally lead a fight against him.

Kokori gave these warnings at the weekend during an exclusive interview with Nigerian Tribune in his country home of Ovu in Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State.

He, however, noted that people who are complaining that Buhari’s appointments so far, are in favour of a particular part of the country are elements wanting to see the former army general fail in his bid to give a direction to the country.

Kokori, who said he was fulfilled seeing Buhari emerged as president in his lifetime, described such protesting elements attacking Buhari’s appointments as parochial and seeking to hold onto the status quo of corruption, adding that there is nothing wrong with the appointments.

“What has Buhari done wrong? People should allow Buhari to stay. Buhari has not done anything for people to make them say he is one-sided.

“People saying that are just parochial. They want Buhari to fail so that they would now go back to the old habit of stealing money without accountability.

“Anybody who is on that level, I don’t buy anything with him. I’m not supporting Buhari that he should neglect our people; after some time, if he does it, I’ll even lead the fight against him.

“After about a year or two and we see the way the whole thing is going, infrastructural development, appointments, obviously, we’ll rise against him.

“There is no question of friendship on that one or closeness or party affiliation. He must govern Nigeria with justice and equity and that is what he swore with the Quran to uphold and I pray he does it. And I’m sure he will do it,” the Abacha nightmare averred.

When asked what should be done with the report on the National Conference convoked last year by the outgone regime of President Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Kokori admonished Buhari to hold onto some good contents of the confab because some credible personalities, whose voices, he said, were however drowned, participated in it.

On the recent absence of the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu and some APC South West governors at the funeral rite of late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijiwade, Chief Kokori said it was not a good idea no matter the perceived offence of the late revered monarch.

“There are some undercurrents between the Ooni and some South West progressives right from the June 12, 1993 election debacle, which I know as an activist.

“I know the role he played in the June 12 struggle. We were expecting the Ooni of Ife to be 100 per cent behind MKO Abiola and the struggle for the Yoruba man to become president after so many years of marginalization.

“I know the role he played there…. He was a nice man, but I think he had some little shortcomings with the Yoruba progressives. Maybe that was what they have against him.

“But they were supposed to be there to honour the head of the Oduduwa dynasty. If Tinubu, the governors and others were not there, it’s not very good of them. They were supposed to be there to pay their last respect to the late monarch,” the APC chieftain in Delta State stated.wp_posts