The interview below is response of Urhobo Progress Union UPU youth wing president, Efemena Kelly Umukoro to allegations leveled against him by one Efe Kigho.
Efe Kigho is saying you are threatening his life. How true is that?
Well, first of all let me introduce myself. My name is Activist Kelly Efemena Umukoro. I am the Ethnic Nationality Youth President of Urhobo youths worldwide. By the special grace of God I am also the member representing National Youth Council of Nigeria in the State Community Policing Committee SCPC) Delta state Command .
My attention was drawn to a publication by one Efe Kigho who is the suspended former Youth President of Abraka Oruarivie community.
Those who know me, know that I am a law abiding citizen, with no antecedent of violent crime and there has never been a time I have ever threatened Efe Kigho or any person in my history but Efe Kigho is doing all these to shy away or to cover up his bad records which was the reason he was suspended from office.
He alleged to have sent a petition to the AIG. I am waiting for an invite which I will gladly go before the AIG and explain my position.
The truth of this whole issue is that Efe Kigho goes about on social media embarrassing my personality with false stories and claims while he goes behind, calling people to beg me. Who does that ?
How can you make a petition before the AIG and you ran to meet Honourable Ben Igbakpa, telling him to talk to me? Honourable Ben Idakpa is somebody I respect a lot, and I told him rightly that it is too late for settlement. Let him come forward to defend all his allegations against me
I said it has gone past the extent where I will listen to anybody begging me. Efe Kigho cannot ridicule me on the pages of newspaper and then go behind asking people to beg me.
He left Honourable Ben Idakpa, he went to meet the former youth President of Urhobo Progress Union Youthwing Worldwide in person of senior Comrade Anthony Ovie Igho to talk to me which I equally declined.
He should relax on his said petition and allow the police to do their job. I don’t have any personal issue with Efe Kigho, but administrative gross misconduct and his behavior towards fellow youths and strangers in Abraka community while he was the youth president.
Basic issues
Can an individual form an anti-cult? The answer is No. What gives him the power to go about arresting Chemist owners and alleging that they sell tramadol and further allegedly asking them to pay him the sum of N100,000 if they want to sell tramadol. The facts are there, the drug enforcement officers are there. These facts can be investigated because they were. The ones who first complained about this attitude of Efe Kigho and his cohort .
The local government chairman in his own wisdom with all the complaints coming in, said youth activities are becoming worrisome hence the suspension of your activities in the local government area .
Efe Kigho allegedly goes around brothel where these girls sit, telling them be paying him N20,000 per month and a registeration fee of N200,000. He does this with his personal account number and he still has right to come up to say he has petitioned me.
The other time he wrote a petition where he alleged I am running away from the police. I am a fugitive. Now he is saying I am threatening his life. How can someone on the run have time to threat your life? For me he should go and answer his petition and allow me to be. I have no personal business with him.
Now, your argument is that you are not threatening his life
There was never anytime I threatened him, rather he was even the one that threatened my life and that of the LGA chairman. He sent a message to us through one of our constituents one Mr Henry, that they should tell myself and the LGA chairman that himself Efe Kigho is going to bend us in this local government and he will chase us away just because we are standing against injustice, against brutality and oppression. So what is playing out is extortion and brutality fighting back.
He also alleged that you use your relationship with the police to intimidate people
That is not true. Those who know me very well, know my stand for justice. As I’m here I have integrity that I must protect. There has never been a time I used my position to intimidate or bully anybody but rather my position is to liberate the common man on the street. Am a human Right Defender.
My position is to fight people like him who are brutalizing my people. The responsibility placed on me as a Youth President is to protect the rights of my youths . So, anybody who wants to intimidate them, brutalize them, extort them, naturally becomes an enemy.
My record is there. What I just don’t want is oppressing anybody close to me. There has never been a time I used my position to intimidate anybody. I am accessible. I am free, I just want the right thing to be done.
From the report, he said you use illicit drugs and that you can arrest anybody who stands against the use of illicit drugs in Abraka
Let me reply to that. First of all, I am not a pharmacist and when it comes to illicit drugs I have led several campaigns against illegal drugs and cultism.
I’m a champion when it comes to fight against illicit drugs and cultism but when you are fighting a crime with the intention of benefitting from that crime, you are corrupt.
Efe Kigho is not fighting against illicit drugs. Let him come out clearly.
Efe Kigho is after those people selling tramadol so that they will give him money at the end of the day. He isn’t fighting illicit drug users.
And allow them to continue?
Yes! I beg to be quoted “there was a time one of those boys he appointed as his illegal anti-cult and drug enforcement agent was arrested by policemen who came from Asaba for offense of drug, the young man arrested said he is a lieutenant to Efe who goes about brutalizing people and arresting them for drugs mainwhile he is a drug baron.
He sent one Kevwe Oteri to meet me that they have arrested one chemist owner and the chemist should go and bring N100,000, one million naira, that was where this whole issue started. I told him that if he tries that I’m going to report him. You are making money from someone you alleged to have committed a crime to cover it up.
Those people who pay him, he allows them to sell while those who refuse to pay him he arrests them. That’s the issue. We are saying say No to drugs but he should not fight crime with the mind of benefiting from same crime, it is wrong.
He said you use drugs, how do you react to that?
He will prove when and how in court. He has gone about defaming my character and I have a case hanging up, waiting for him.
Anytime he comes back, he will answer his case but the highlight of this interview is Comrade Umukoro tells Efe Kigho to stop embarrassing him on media and sending people to beg me privately. And any Urhobo leader who calls me to beg me on this issue again, I am sorry I’m not going to listen to anybody again.
With all due respect to senior Comrade Ovie Igho Anthony, Senior Comrade Bayo Eyube and Honourable Ben Igbakpa, am sorry to disrespect you people but please tell Kigho to go to the police and continue his case. He has written a petition, the police should investigate the case. They should call me, let me go before the police with my facts.
Gone are those days when you just alleged and then you go scot free. I am not for that. He should come up. I should be the one afraid for my life due to his own antecedent
He said you were invited by the magistrate court but you didn’t show up
According to him, he said that he has a case at the magistrate court against me, I was not aware of any case.
That means you were not invited
I was not invited. I was not aware and he went up to say that I am using my contacts to remove the case from court.
The police have their own way of operating. I am not a police man. If they invite me today, I will go to the station. I will write the statement and give them facts that they need. The police should be allowed to do their job.
Yes, the issue between me and Efe Kigho is that I stopped him from benefitting from crime and criminality. That is the problem. And what I expected of him was to show that he has repented so we can bring him back but bringing frivolous allegations against me will do us no good. It won’t do us any good.
Efe kigho said he has done his petition, let him relax his nerves and keep all his arsenals. Let him go to court and go to the police.
I have facts of different persons he has sent to threaten my life. I should be the one afraid, but by the special grace of God when you are doing what is right and your hands are clean, you are under God’s grace and protection you are safe .
You have a case at the first time you said I am a fugitive, I am running from the police, you left that part. he said I am using the police to bully you . He left that part and wrote a petition, he left that part and is using people to beg me. The man is confused !
He should not beg me behind the scene. Let him go and attend to his case. I need to be called. my numbers are available (08134710291), that’s my personal line. I pick all calls. Let him do the right thing. Whatever you see at that petition is the direct opposite of happenings. It is not true, it is barbaric, it is nothing to write home about. It is the definition of crime and criminality fighting back.
He said you are making efforts to stop the case
Do I have that powers? I don’t have that power. I am even begging him to continue the case. The police in Delta have been looking for him. Let him come forward. Efe Kigho has been on the run. He ran to Abuja to meet Honourable Ben to beg me. I am accessible. I am everywhere. I am at Abraka as I speak to you. Let him come back to Delta or go back to the Benin. Anywhere let me be called and let me position the facts before the police.
I don’t want to talk much, after I have seen the police, I will bring out all the necessary facts before the table and let public opinion scrutinize everything I have said. My position is the youth president does not have right to take money from chemist owners under any act. The youth president does not have any right to form an anti-cult. The youth president does not have right to start taking monthly deve from shop owners. He doesn’t have that right. That is my position. If he can change from all these three things I’ve called then we are good friends.
