Ibori’s Daughter Booed At Tribute Ceremony To Late Ibru, Fumbling Over Common Words

Erhiatake Ibori, who represents Ethiope West constituency in the Delta State House of Assembly, was yesterday booed off the stage during a valedictory/tribute session for the late Olorogun Felix Ovuodoroye Ibru, the first civilian governor of Delta State.

Erhiatake, 36, is the daughter of the jailed former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori.  The PDP legislator’s surprising lack of coherence first attracted murmurs from the crowd present for the event at Government House.

She had been asked to pay a tribute on behalf of her father but exhibited considerable difficulty trying to pronounce even words that were boldly written on the burial brochure.

Appearing and sounding visibly frightened, she repeated lines that had already been read, and then was floored when she tackled the words “magnanimous”and “meritoriously.”  The murmurs grew into boos.

Embarking on a rescue mission, her father’s successor as governor and her cousin, Mr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, who rose to pay his own tribute, provided some comic relief.  The former medical doctor diagnosed the situation as one where Erhiatake’s glasses were probably not very good.   The crowd erupted in another round of uncontrollable laughter.

Erhiatake won her seat in the state legislature in April last year, despite allegations by some people in her father’s Oghara, Mr. Ibori’s Oghara community that the PDP had imposed her as its candidate for the EthiopeWest legislative seat.

Prior to running for the seat, she launched a non-government organization, Starlite Hopes Initiative, to provide free ambulance services in the area.  It was not clear how she obtained the funds for such an ambitious programme.