LAGOS JULY 18TH (URHOBOTODAY)-Delta State Deputy Governor, Barr. Kingsley Otuaro suffered huge embarrassment on his very first outing as Governor of Delta State during the flag-off of the Federal Government Social Safety net programme held in Asaba, Delta State.
Otuaro represented Dr Ifeanyi Okowa as Governor of Delta Sate. Okowa is presently on two weeks vacation.
The first shocker for Otuaro was contained in a goodwill message delivered by His Royal Majesty Pere S.P.Luke, Kalanama VIII, the Pere of Akugbene Mein Kingdom in Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State who spoke on behalf of Delta State traditional rulers.
The Monarch accused Delta state government of not being transparent in dealing with the people, adding that the government is deceitful and involve in double standard in the selection of beneficiaries in its job creation programmes of YAGEP and STEP .
“The Delta state government had called us together and gave us forms to distribute to persons in our communities, assuring us that they would rely on our list to select those to benefit from the job creation programmes. We were shocked when the list came out only to discover that most of the people we nominated were not on the list.
“The government deceived us traditional rulers into believing that we were important only to disgrace us when the list came out. We have been invited again under the same pretext that we are important and we hope and pray this new Federal government programme will not be like that of the state YAGEP and STEP programmes.”
In the same vein, Bishop Emuobor, a representative of Delta State clerics in the occasion, accused Delta State government under Senator Ifeanyi Okowa of neglecting the religious constituency when it come to selecting those to benefit from government welfare programmes.
Hear him, “When you are in crisis and need spiritual guidance and prayers, you quickly run to us to pray for you, but after using us to seek the face of God to intervene in your matters, you either forget us, abandon us or relegate us to the background when it comes to selecting people to benefit from what rightfully belongs to everybody. It is our hope that the clergy and religious community will be treated with more respect and given more attention in the future”, he stressed.
There was pandemonium when the Delta State market women association was called upon to give their goodwill message. Two factions of the union almost came to blows, over alleged N21million loan
facility already disbursed to a faction by the office of the Delta State Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Agency.
Appeals to the warring parties to respect the presence of the Acting Governor fell on deaf ears as they proceeded to use the opportunity to air their views.
Assurances by Otuaro that the government would address the grievances of both the traditional rulers and religious leaders, as well as the market women came too late as first outing as Acting Governor ended in a near fiasco.
Many people who aired their views after the ceremony were quick to opine that such a thing would not have happened if Okowa was presiding adding Otuaro was quite unfit to handle the reins of government if things could break down so uncontrollably manner in his presence.
Most disturbing was the conclusion that the allegations expressed by the traditional ruler and the religious leader were clear indications of the disappointment, deprivation and marginalization that Deltans are now feeling since Okowa became governor of Delta state and the presence of Otuaro as Ac ing Governor had provided them the much needed opportunity to tell the Okowa administration that both his SMART agenda and prosperity for all Deltans slogan is a deceptive agenda and has been empowering only those few selected persons close to him at the expense of the rest of the people of Delta state.