' Am not aware of any power shift pact with Delta North'-Delta SSG
A PROMINENT member of the ruling
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Secretary to the Delta State Government
and a PDP Chieftain,Comrade Ovouzourie
Macaulay, has denied the existence of an agreement for power shift among the
three senatorial districts.
Answering questions from
journalists in Asaba, Macaulay said that, as a member of the G3, which
campaigned vigorously for incumbent Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan in 2007, had
thrown his full weight behind the emergence of a candidate from the
Igbo-speaking (Anioma) part of the state which makes up the Delta North
Senatorial district but was beginning to be skeptical about the agenda.
The SSG said that he would have
preferred a candidate from Delta North who has a pan-Delta agenda instead of an
ethnic-based campaign with all the cacophony of power shift which almost all
the candidates from the district are currently engaged in.
He pointed out that as the North was
only the senatorial district that was yet to produce the governorship of the
state, as the Urhobo or Central (have had it twice through Senator Felix Ibru
and Chief James Ibori) and the South comprising the Itsekiri, Isoko and Ijaw
(once through Uduaghan), the Anioma people truly deserve the support of the
others.
Macaulay who is from the South
Senatorial district faulted the Anioma candidates’ campaign slogan of equity
and fairness, advising that the proper thing for them to do is to mount a
campaign throughout the length and breadth of the state, outlining their dreams
and vision for the state.
He said he was turned off by the
negative campaign of marginalisation being labelled against the past rulers of
the state by Anioma candidates, stressing that it smacks of an intention to
engage in vendetta against the people of South and Central districts should an
Anioma person become governor in 2015.
He charged: “I was initially very
enthusiastic about an Anioma governor as Delta North is the only district that
is yet to produce the governorship of the state but I am afraid that they may
not get the support of the other districts if they don’t change their style.
There is no need for this strident cry of marginalization. It is a pointer that
the Anioma are out for a revenge mission against the other parts of the state
should they win in 2015. I think the proper thing for them to do is to campaign
and sell their agenda for transforming the state to the people. With the way
they are going about it, I am afraid that people like us will not support an
Anioma person for the governorship as we are scared.”
The secretary insisted that as an
insider, he was not aware of any agreement between the Anioma and other parts
of the state for a power shift, adding that even if there was one, it was
crystal clear that the people and leaders of Delta North never faithfully
adhered to it.
Macaulay explained during the last
election in 2011, the votes of Delta Northerners were shared between Uduaghan
of the PDP and Chief Great Ogboru of the main opposition Democratic People’s
Party and was the reason why Ogboru won convincingly in four local councils in
Delta North and ran neck and neck with Uduaghan in the other five.
He said: “If at all, there was an
agreement, the proper thing to have been done for the agreement to be valid was
for the people of Delta North to vote massively for Uduaghan. Since nothing
like that happened in the election, such an agreement is not valid. For the
avoidance of doubt, the opposition had 12 members in the House of Assembly.”
He said he is yet to take a political
decision for the forthcoming election but will support any candidate who has a
vision of taking the state to a higher level instead of a narrow selfish and
ethnic agenda.
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