Prominent elder statesman and Ijaw national leader, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo
Clark, has expressed opposition to the declaration by the Minister of
Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, to become the governor of Delta state in 2015. In his view, the Speaker of the
Delta state House of Assembly, Mr. Victor Ochei, is also unqualified
either to be governor of the state, he said today in a press conference
in his residence in Warri.
Chief Clark carpeted the Speaker for abandoning the state Independent
Power Plant Project at Oghara after collecting N18 billion out of the
N27 billion mega contract, stressing that no work has yet to take place
at the project site.
The enlarged press conference was also attended by the state chairman of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Peter Nwaoboshi.
The former Minister of Information expressed regret that Orubebe has
caused a lot of embarrassment to the Presidency, stressing that even if
it were the turn of the Ijaws to produce the next governor of Delta
State, "it will not be Mr Godsday Orubebe and he is fully aware of
that".
According to the visibly angry PDP leader, "Mr. President has made his
position very clear on this matter. He has categorically stated that he
was not going to take a decision on whether he will re-contest the
Presidential election in 2015 until 2014 and that he needed time to
concentrate on the job he promised Nigerians during 2011 election, when
they massively voted for him and therefore directed that none of his
ministers and other government functionaries should engage in politics
as to declaring their intentions or supporting any one for elective
position including senatorial, House of Representatives or
gubernatorial."
Orubebe, he said, has flouted that order, and cannot claim ignorance of that fact.
"His flagrant disobedience is no doubt an embarrassment to Mr.
President, to the leaders of the party and party faithful, particularly
to me that everybody believes, contributed greatly to his becoming
minister, having regard to the opposition from former governor, Chief
James Onanefe Ibori and his supporters," Clark said.
"Our opponents and detractors are definitely cashing in on Mr. Godsday
Orubebe's careless and irresponsible statement and are now using it to
insult President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the Ijaws and even myself that
the President and I, are definitely behind him. I have tried to
disabuse the minds of the people and deny that neither Mr. President nor
I is aware of Mr. Orubebe's statement."
He recalled that he was the one who accompanied Orubebe to the State
House in Abuja after his confirmation by the Senate as a Minister and to
be sworn in as Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with three
other colleagues of his, followed by the embarrassment when the former
Secretary to the Federal Government Amb. Babagana Kingibe, informed him
that the President had decided not to swear Orubebe in.
"I left the Executive Chambers with Mr Godsday Orubebe and his wife in
disgrace but later summed up courage to address the State House Press on
the issue," the former Minister said. "It is therefore, my advice to
the Honourable Minister not to allow the spoils of office to derail him
or cause him to take wrong judgement."
He described as reckless the assertion by Mr. Orubebe that the
governorship should be produced on the basis of ethnicity since the
Urhobos and the Itsekiris have produced governors and the Ijaws, Isokos
and Ndokwas have not.
In that regard, he reminded Orubebe that peace has been a scarce
commodity in Delta state, particularly in the PDP, since the 2007
gubernatorial election, and that it was only last year, following a
series of litigations, that there was voluntary reconciliation.
With reference to Mr. Ochei, Clark lamented the inability of the
anti-graft agencies to investigate the Oghara IPP project, regretting
that a man carrying the burden of failing to execute such a massive
public project, is the one now boldly seeking the governorship where he
will be protected by the immunity clause.
"This is over two years now, so some people are above the law even when
they are yet to become governor when it will be said that they are
protected by the immunity clause. Delta State people need a governor who
is God fearing, transparent, intelligent and loved by his people," he
said.
Contacted on the phone over Clark's comments about him, the Speaker refused to comment.
Clark urged the PDP National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, to call Orubebe to
order and to advise him to withdraw the court cases he has filed, so as
to allow peace to reign in the party and State.
Mr. Orubebe shocked many people in political circles last week when he
declared, despite a series of corruption allegations against him,that he
would enter the Delta State gubernatorial race in 2015
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