Elder Godday Orubebe
Former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godday Orubebe stirred the hornet’s nest at the weekend, during which he made some grave allegations against Senator Joel-Onowakpo Thomas, representing the Delta South Senatorial District in the National Assembly. He accused the senator of abandonment after investing hugely to make the man win the Senate seat in 2023.
Orubebe claimed that he spent so much money in his support and bid to ensure that Joel-Onowakpo got to the Senate. But he said no soon after the elections, the senator abandoned him and even stopped to pick his calls. “One day, after about two years, he saw me at the airport and tried to greet him but I told him off”, Orubebe told his audience.
Giving the former Minister’s stature as a public officer, ex local governments chairman and as a famed Man of God, there should be no reason to doubt him. And his scorching use of words, while making the allegations ordinarily should make anyone listening to think tthat indeed, Joel-Onowakpo was a bad man after all.
However, contrary evidence and narratives have been adduced to suggest that Orubebe was economical with the truth. And it’s unbelievable to imagine that he could have done so simply for pecuniary gains or for jaundiced self interests. But how can a man who was once regarded as one of the kitchen cabinet members of former President Goodluck Jonathan descend do low to invent scenarios that never existed to score a cheap point?
Interestingly, the Ijaw leader was the cynosure of many eyes while he was Minister in Abuja. This was after he started a weekly prayer meeting that attracted people from all over the country. Lobbyists seeking favour from the Jonathan administration turned the prayer session into a beehive.
As it turned out, the former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs reportedly has a church in his compound in the village. Of course, all attention has been to nurture the church to full growth after leaving office in 2025 after the defeat of Jonathan by late President Muhammadu Buhari. Such a man deserves to tell the truth always.
So, when Orubebe was accused of telling lies against Senator Joel-Onowakpo Thomas, it became unimaginable and a matter of deep puzzle. And to have done so in a brazen manner even makes it more shocking. As the lawyers will say, this happened to be case that has been proven beyond reasonable doubt.
The Holy Bible in 2 Corinthians 13.1 says “Every matter (truth) must be established by tne testimony of two or three witnesses”. And in this instance more than two persons who claimed to have been key witnesses in Joel-Onowakpo”s campaign from start to finish have come out to Pooh Pooh what the former Minister said
Of significance were the testimonies of Chief Michael Jonny and Hon Ebiakpo Ezebiri, one a known grassers general and the other, a former director of protocols in the Joel-Onowakpo campaign. They were swift and unanimous in their rebutal: “Orubebe lied” Both men were part of the campaigns from start to finish.
First was Chief Jonny, who in a viral video white washed the Minister’s cocktail of none existent scenarios and alleged outright lies. He also provided rare insight as to why orubeumsde such alleged wild claims without batting the eyelid.
According to him, “The only time he (Orubebe) attached himself to us was when he invited us to follow him to Ojobo,” Johnny explains. “That was not our campaign. We went there out of respect.” That means the Minister was never part of Joel-Onowakpo”s campaign team. They merely accompanied him on a courtesy appearance based on request made by Orubebe.
Chief Johnny in the rebutal questioned the credibility of the man and also said pointedly that the Minister has nothing to show as legacy projects for all the years in public office. “Let Orubebe show me one project that he started and commissioned. Let him tell us how many people from Ijaw land that he employed or empowered “, he demanded
The grassroots general said there was no time throughout the campaigns that the team dropped money as low as N250,000 (Two hundred and fifty thousand naira) as claimed by Orubebe, insisting that if there was such an instance, he would have easily remembered.
Johnny recalled that during the 2023 campaign, when Orubebe was the Director General for the then flag bearer of the APC, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, the party found it very hard to campaign in Ijaw land. “In several communities, Orubebe could not point to one project. In some places, he could not even address the people confidently because there was nothing to show,” he added.
For Johnny, this is where the contradiction lies: a leader with limited visible legacy now seeking to claim credit for the success of others. It is a charge that resonates in a region where political memory is shaped by lived experience. Communities remember roads built, schools renovated, and opportunities created, not just speeches delivered.
But Johnny’s critique does not stop at performance. He also takes aim at what he describes as Orubebe’s disruptive influence within party structures during the election period. According to him, the political climate before Orubebe’s entry into the party after the primaries was relatively stable, with leaders working in unity toward a common goal. That unity, he alleges, was fractured by the former minister’s arrival.
“He came with a system of divide and rule,” Johnny claims, suggesting that internal tensions and disagreements intensified thereafter. However, the well known Ijaw Chief, identified with speaking truth to power, accused the former Minister of nursing an inordinate ambition.
Said he: Orubebe wants to be Governor of Delta State at over 70 years in 2031. That’s why he’s trying to shoot Senator Joel-Onowakpo down. He sees the Isoko man as a threat. But with what is he (Orubebe) going to campaign? What will he say he has done for the Ijaw people,” he asked. “You cannot fail in office and then come back to rewrite history,” he reminded the Minister.
For Ezebiri, nothing can be more false than the vituperations made by Orubebe. As director of protocols during the campaigns, it was his job to determine where they went and who was part of the team. But he says he can’t recall anytime the former Minister was part of Joel-Onowakpo’s entourage, not to talk of him him providing kola support throughout, culminating in the victory that took his principal to the Senate.
“I was part of every movement the senator made during the campaigns and there was no instance where Orubebe took him around Delta South” Ezebiri stated emphatically, pointing out that it was in his place as director of protocols to arrange movement of the team from one place to the other.
For funds which Orubebe alleged were used to survive Joel-Onowakpo, the erstwhile director said: “These are weighty claims without any supporting facts. When exactly were these funds given and under what circumstances? As a leader, people listen carefully to what he says. While he is free to support any candidate, such support should not be accompanied by claims that cannot be substantiated.”
It has become obvious that we are dealing with a case of soured grapes if the testimonies of those who have spoken are true, especially because they don’t have anything to hide by lying. Of course, the burden of proof lies with the former Minister who has been effectively labelled as having inordinate ambition and desperate to cut short the political journey of a potential rival in the fight ahead.
Until Orubebe comes clean with what actually transpired during the campaigns, nobody will take him serious. We shall take his words with a pinch of salt. What can be more damning for a man who rose to the peak as key Minister in the Jonathan era? S so called Man of God? The coming days will unveil fully the reason for such ambivalence.