LAGOS JUNE 23RD (URHOBOTODAY) Ijaws in Delta State on Wednesday renewed their support for the minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe’s governorship ambition if he decides to contest for the 2015 political office.
Coordinator of Izon communities in the state, Chief Bare Etolor, who spoke with newsmen after a meeting in Warri, noted that the minister will further transform the state by ensuring rapid development across the 25 local government areas if he eventually becomes the governor of the state.
Etolor, who is also a former chairman, Izon Council of Elders (Izon Okosutu) said his people were not happy over the insinuations and unpalatable remark being made against the minister.
“All what the elders and leaders of Ijaw ethnic group in the state is saying is that Elder Orubebe should be left alone to decide his political ambition. Besides, he is a son of the state from Ijaw extraction who is eminently qualified to contest the governship position of the state in 2015 political dispensation.”
He expressed displeasure over Chief Edwin Clark’s recent attack on Orubebe which borders on his governorship ambition in the state, adding that such open condemnation should not have come from the eminent Ijaw national leader like Clark.
“According to him, Ijaw leaders have since dismissed Chief Clark statement as his personal opinion because everybody has his own life to live just as Chief Clark’s son who lost out in his bid to go to the House of Representatives in the last dispensation.”
Etolor, however, lauded the effort of the Urhobo Elders and Leaders Stakeholders Forum for having the courage to attack corrupt people in government but enjoined them to go further in exposing contractors who got millions of naira as mobilization fees without executing the projects allocated to them.
He lamented that such attitude of not executing their contracts has succeeded in further perpetuating under-development in Ijaw land.
The Ijaw leader lamented that people who fail to see reason on the latest development are cashing in on the little political space created by the PDP to reconcile aggrieved persons is now causing ripples among Ijaws regretting that Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan is now sitting on the fence laughing at them.
“The Ijaw National Congress (INC) also erred by giving Orubebe ultimatum without hearing from him. They ought to have given him a chance to defend himself before passing the harsh judgment on the minister”, said the Ijaw leader.