DELTA 2015: EXPOSED – UPU’S FALSE CLAIMS …. AS URHOBO THREAT OVER JONATHAN, OKOWA, EVAPORATES -- By Tony Eluemunor
Question: On what really are the threats
which the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) has been directing against both President
Goodluck Jonathan and Senator Ifeanyi Okowa based? Answer: On nothing but false
claims, if not bare-faced lies. The UPU had insisted that an Urhobo must be the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Delta state for the
2015 election – or Urhoboland would oppose PDP candidates, especially at the
presidential and governorship elections.
Yet…yet, with amazing insistence and ferocious intensity, the UPU, before it factionalised into ineffectuality, betraying itself in all intents and purposes, had claimed repeatedly that it would exercise the tyranny of the majority and trudge other ethnic groups under its boots. This terrible stance heightened when Senator Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa, from Delta North Senatorial District, handsomely won the PDP gubernatorial primary election. Visionaries who attempted to steer UPU’s leaders to other ways of dabbling into politics apart from this straightforward call to war and this outdated and diabolical booth camp mentality were openly labeled saboteurs.
Instead of accepting this democratic choice, the UPU continued with the claim that the Urhobo people constitutes over 60 per cent of the Delta state voting population and so would swing any election in the state. And from there began the threats, empty, terribly hollow ones really, which some Urhobo leaders have been scattering everywhere since it became obvious that Senator Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa was the popular choice of delegates at the PDP gubernatorial primaries in Asaba, early December. The threats gained in virulence and intensity and after his overwhelming victory. .
Yet, this much-bandied 60 per cent about voter strength is nothing but a lie, a damned lie. So why should President Jonathan and PDP’s governorship flag-bearer in Delta state, Senator Okowa not lose much sleep over the threat that the Urhobo would vote against the PDP if an Urhobo is not imposed on the party as its candidate, despite the fact that the same UPU screened Uhrobo candidates, chose and anointed contestant David Edebvie, who emerged a distant second to Okowa? The reason is obviously this; the 60 per cent voting strength is a lie.
Very often, the Urhobo have used this lie to garnish their argument; “On the basis of demography and electoral value, everyone knows the Urhobo control over 60 per cent of the voting strength in Delta State”. The quotation came from an otherwise respected national daily, The Nation. It has also been repeated in the Vanguard countless times. Please note this quote: “Back home, Urhobo constitutes 60 per cent of the population of Delta State; thus, in every ten Deltans, there are six Urhobo people”. That false claim came from Professor S.W.E. Ibodje who was at the University of Port Harcourt, when he delivered a paper entitled “The Challenges of the Urhobo Nation” at Urhobo Unity Summit, held at the P.T.I Conference Centre, Effurun, July 31, 2009. Since then, this, loathsome, appalling, even dreadful falsity has ricocheted from mouth to mouth and from one publication to the other.
For instance, the UPU factional President, Chief Joe Omene, had once said in Warri, Delta state, at a press conference that “In the 2011 general elections for instance, the average numerical votes delivered by the Urhobo people for the President was well above 820,000. This figure is almost comparatively double of the votes realized from the North and South Senatorial districts of the state, put together, which was hardly up to 500,000 votes”.
The census figures, voters registers and records of past elections have all made nonsense of this lie. The population of Delta State based on the 2006 census is 4,112,445. The population of the three senatorial districts are as follows: Delta North- 1,236,840 (30.1%); Delta Central- 1,570,858 (38.2%); and Delta South- 1,304,747 (31.7%). So, if Urhoboland does not control 60 per cent of the population of the state, how will it, all things being equal, produce over 60 per cent of the votes? INEC registered number of voters in each senatorial district are: Delta North- 641,125 (30.5%); Delta Central- 827,338 (39.4%); and Delta South- 630,911 (30.1%).
So, here again, the question is germane: if the Delta Central Senatorial District which comprises Urhoboland does not have up to 60 per cent of the registered voters, how would it produce 60 per cent of the votes all things remaining equal?
Yet, that the UPU could embrace this call is worrisome in that the call itself is obnoxious; it even asked, after the Asaba primary, that a democratically elected candidate to fly the PDP flag be dropped just because he is not an Urhobo, and another, an Urhobo, who did not win the primary, be made the flag-bearer through the back door. Such base and mischievous request should have no place in the new Nigeria that is emerging, where every vote should count. Assuming the PDP harkened to UPU’s call, what would happen if the anointed Urhobo candidate loses the election to a non-Urhobo? Or would the UPU also petition the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to award their son or daughter unmerited electoral victory or it would grow angry?
Moreover, it is worrisome that UPU has proved incapable of keeping a promise it solemnly made – to stop the agitations and support Jonathan and Okowa. 12 UPU leaders came to the State House, Abuja and met with President Jonathan on Tuesday December 30th 2014. Chief Omene cut a pitiful figure that day, visiting the toilet four times in one hour ostensibly because he was under great pressure. There, the UPU promised to open deliberations with Okowa as the Urhobo people will vote for the PDP in the 2015 general elections. The UPU agreed with Jonathan that it is only after a PDP victory that the issue of appointment into offices could be discussed.
Now, it has dawned on the UPU that by dabbling into politics, it not only abandoned its real role but has opened itself to public odium and ridicule.
High Chief Oghenemaro Opute said in a press briefing in Asokoro District, Abuja, a few weeks ago: “Actually, this is a betrayal of all Urhobo sons and daughters. Now, instead of the UPU leaders taking responsibilities for the fall out of their inappropriate actions, they have turned around to start seeking for saboteurs where none may exist”. Yes, Omene himself called somebody like former Delta state Governor James Onanefe Ibori a saboteur for supporting Okowa, an Anioma person.
Opute said: “First, as an Urhobo elder who has been in the forefront of UPU activities for years, I make bold to say that UPU is not a political party. Instead, it is a socio-cultural organisation set up to protect the interests of all Urhobo people wherever they may be and despite their political party affiliations.
“So the first mistake that the UPU made was its much advertised support for Chief David Edebvie as its anointed candidate in the PDP primaries of December 8,2014 in Asaba.
“Its attempt to influence the outcome of that political exercise should have been done discretely and not as brazenly as the UPU leaders went about it in newspaper adverts and public pronouncements.
“The first effect of UPU’s open advisement of Edebvie for the PDP is that the organisation totally disowned all Urhobo sons and daughters in the other parties, or does it mean that an Urhobo son such as Chief Great Ogboru, who is a Labour Party (LP) chieftain or Chief O’tega Emerhor, who is in All Progressives Congress (APC ) are no
longer bona fide Urhobo people? So that public endorsement of Edevie is a fatal
error.”
According to Opute, “It would have been best for the UPU to keenly monitor the primaries of all the parties, wait for the candidates to emerge and then decide which of them will best protect Urhobo interests and discretely support that person.
“Secondly, the way the UPU leadership flip-flopped over which PDP candidate to support in the primaries did not lend credibility to the organisation.
“It is totally wrong for the UPU leadership to first give its support to Chief Omo Agege, who allegedly funded the UPU in recent times only to abandon him and switch support to Deputy Governor Amos Utuama as the most senior Urhobo in government, only to abandon him at the very last minute to support David Edebrie.
“In fact, such inexplicable flip-flops lend credence to the otherwise wild allegation that the UPU may have collected a million dollars from Delta state’s Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan to do his bidding.
“As though the allegation that the UPU sold the Urhobo nation to Uduaghan was not bad enough, the UPU has admitted that the Olu of Warri, Ogaime Atiwashe II, also influenced UPU’s decision, saying it actually met with him before deciding to support Edebvie. In essence, this means that the Olu of Warri now tells the Urhobo where to go despite the existence of numerous respectable traditional rulers in Urhobo land. Did the UPU confer with them?
Now, notable Urhobo sons and daughters are up in arms with the UPU for abandoning its real role and dabbling amateurishly in the murky waters of politics. The daily advertisements in numerous newspapers over the UPU stance testify to this.
According to Opute, “The threat that UPU has instructed the Urhobo people to vote against Senator Authur Ifeanyi Okowa and the PDP in all strata of 2015 elections is now being rubbished by the day.
“And that is not a surprise; PDP, stakeholders, in Abraka kingdom in Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State have reassured the party’s governorship candidate, Ifeanyi Okowa, and other candidates of the party of massive vote during the 2015 general elections.”
“The resolution taken during an enlarged meeting of the PDP, convened by the former local government chairman of Ethiope East and Director of Youth Mobilisation, Delta State PDP chapter, Sunday Onoriode, was attended by party leaders from the three wards of Abraka community.
“There, leaders from the three wards, Chiefs Tony Onoharigho, Sapele Atigogo; Cheko Inomiesaha, Warri; Godday Kizito, Oweh, Felix Erhimedafe, Wilson Agbure and Grace Uwhumiakpo, stated that Abraka community is PDP’s home and will continue to vote for the party in all elections.
“Also, a former member of the of House of Representatives, John Edijala, in the December 17 edition of the Vanguard Newspaper, called on the Chief Joe Omene-led leadership of UPU to apologise to Urhobo people and resign,” Opute conclude.
In the interim, UPU’s opposition to Okowa has led to two things; first it has sensitized the other ethnic groups and led to the introspection which showed that it was not Urhobo votes that made even Urhobo sons such as Felix Ibru and James Ibori governors – as Delta North voted overwhelmingly for them while Urhobo often voted for other candidates. Second, UPU is now battling against open rebellion from several fronts. A former member of the of House of Representatives, Mr. John Edijala, in the December 17 edition of the Vanguard newspaper, called on the Chief Joe Omene-led leadership of Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, to apologise to Urhobo people and resign.
Now, Omene is fighting to retain his post; a faction of the UPU has emerged, sacked him and proclaimed its support for the All Progressive Congress governorship candidate, Olorogun O’Tega Emerhor , while Omene’s faction supports the Labour Party candidate, Chief Great Ogboru.
In the build-up to the December 8, 2014 Delta state PDP governorship primary in Asaba, the UPU went combative in its stance that only an Urhobo person, was qualified to be the Delta state governor. Thus, the UPU, an otherwise socio-cultural group turned lethally political and directed all Urhobo delegates to vote for the anointed Urhobo candidate, Chief David Edebvie.
Despite that stance, Okowa romped to an easy victory, riding on the crest of a dream – the votes of delegates from all across the state, including some Urhobo persons.
Now that the UPU is divided, with each side supporting a different candidate, it means that the 30 per cent or so votes which belong to the Urhobo people would be divided into three – to Emerhor, Ogboru and Okowa. Yet, it remains to be explained, how and why the falsehood that the Urhobo people controlled over 60 per cent of the state’s votes, despite the census and figures and voting records of the past elections.
Yet…yet, with amazing insistence and ferocious intensity, the UPU, before it factionalised into ineffectuality, betraying itself in all intents and purposes, had claimed repeatedly that it would exercise the tyranny of the majority and trudge other ethnic groups under its boots. This terrible stance heightened when Senator Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa, from Delta North Senatorial District, handsomely won the PDP gubernatorial primary election. Visionaries who attempted to steer UPU’s leaders to other ways of dabbling into politics apart from this straightforward call to war and this outdated and diabolical booth camp mentality were openly labeled saboteurs.
Instead of accepting this democratic choice, the UPU continued with the claim that the Urhobo people constitutes over 60 per cent of the Delta state voting population and so would swing any election in the state. And from there began the threats, empty, terribly hollow ones really, which some Urhobo leaders have been scattering everywhere since it became obvious that Senator Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa was the popular choice of delegates at the PDP gubernatorial primaries in Asaba, early December. The threats gained in virulence and intensity and after his overwhelming victory. .
Yet, this much-bandied 60 per cent about voter strength is nothing but a lie, a damned lie. So why should President Jonathan and PDP’s governorship flag-bearer in Delta state, Senator Okowa not lose much sleep over the threat that the Urhobo would vote against the PDP if an Urhobo is not imposed on the party as its candidate, despite the fact that the same UPU screened Uhrobo candidates, chose and anointed contestant David Edebvie, who emerged a distant second to Okowa? The reason is obviously this; the 60 per cent voting strength is a lie.
Very often, the Urhobo have used this lie to garnish their argument; “On the basis of demography and electoral value, everyone knows the Urhobo control over 60 per cent of the voting strength in Delta State”. The quotation came from an otherwise respected national daily, The Nation. It has also been repeated in the Vanguard countless times. Please note this quote: “Back home, Urhobo constitutes 60 per cent of the population of Delta State; thus, in every ten Deltans, there are six Urhobo people”. That false claim came from Professor S.W.E. Ibodje who was at the University of Port Harcourt, when he delivered a paper entitled “The Challenges of the Urhobo Nation” at Urhobo Unity Summit, held at the P.T.I Conference Centre, Effurun, July 31, 2009. Since then, this, loathsome, appalling, even dreadful falsity has ricocheted from mouth to mouth and from one publication to the other.
For instance, the UPU factional President, Chief Joe Omene, had once said in Warri, Delta state, at a press conference that “In the 2011 general elections for instance, the average numerical votes delivered by the Urhobo people for the President was well above 820,000. This figure is almost comparatively double of the votes realized from the North and South Senatorial districts of the state, put together, which was hardly up to 500,000 votes”.
The census figures, voters registers and records of past elections have all made nonsense of this lie. The population of Delta State based on the 2006 census is 4,112,445. The population of the three senatorial districts are as follows: Delta North- 1,236,840 (30.1%); Delta Central- 1,570,858 (38.2%); and Delta South- 1,304,747 (31.7%). So, if Urhoboland does not control 60 per cent of the population of the state, how will it, all things being equal, produce over 60 per cent of the votes? INEC registered number of voters in each senatorial district are: Delta North- 641,125 (30.5%); Delta Central- 827,338 (39.4%); and Delta South- 630,911 (30.1%).
So, here again, the question is germane: if the Delta Central Senatorial District which comprises Urhoboland does not have up to 60 per cent of the registered voters, how would it produce 60 per cent of the votes all things remaining equal?
Yet, that the UPU could embrace this call is worrisome in that the call itself is obnoxious; it even asked, after the Asaba primary, that a democratically elected candidate to fly the PDP flag be dropped just because he is not an Urhobo, and another, an Urhobo, who did not win the primary, be made the flag-bearer through the back door. Such base and mischievous request should have no place in the new Nigeria that is emerging, where every vote should count. Assuming the PDP harkened to UPU’s call, what would happen if the anointed Urhobo candidate loses the election to a non-Urhobo? Or would the UPU also petition the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to award their son or daughter unmerited electoral victory or it would grow angry?
Moreover, it is worrisome that UPU has proved incapable of keeping a promise it solemnly made – to stop the agitations and support Jonathan and Okowa. 12 UPU leaders came to the State House, Abuja and met with President Jonathan on Tuesday December 30th 2014. Chief Omene cut a pitiful figure that day, visiting the toilet four times in one hour ostensibly because he was under great pressure. There, the UPU promised to open deliberations with Okowa as the Urhobo people will vote for the PDP in the 2015 general elections. The UPU agreed with Jonathan that it is only after a PDP victory that the issue of appointment into offices could be discussed.
Now, it has dawned on the UPU that by dabbling into politics, it not only abandoned its real role but has opened itself to public odium and ridicule.
High Chief Oghenemaro Opute said in a press briefing in Asokoro District, Abuja, a few weeks ago: “Actually, this is a betrayal of all Urhobo sons and daughters. Now, instead of the UPU leaders taking responsibilities for the fall out of their inappropriate actions, they have turned around to start seeking for saboteurs where none may exist”. Yes, Omene himself called somebody like former Delta state Governor James Onanefe Ibori a saboteur for supporting Okowa, an Anioma person.
Opute said: “First, as an Urhobo elder who has been in the forefront of UPU activities for years, I make bold to say that UPU is not a political party. Instead, it is a socio-cultural organisation set up to protect the interests of all Urhobo people wherever they may be and despite their political party affiliations.
“So the first mistake that the UPU made was its much advertised support for Chief David Edebvie as its anointed candidate in the PDP primaries of December 8,
“Its attempt to influence the outcome of that political exercise should have been done discretely and not as brazenly as the UPU leaders went about it in newspaper adverts and public pronouncements.
“The first effect of UPU’s open advisement of Edebvie for the PDP is that the organisation totally disowned all Urhobo sons and daughters in the other parties, or does it mean that an Urhobo son such as Chief Great Ogboru, who is a Labour Party (LP) chieftain or Chief O’tega Emerhor, who is in All Progressives Congress (
According to Opute, “It would have been best for the UPU to keenly monitor the primaries of all the parties, wait for the candidates to emerge and then decide which of them will best protect Urhobo interests and discretely support that person.
“Secondly, the way the UPU leadership flip-flopped over which PDP candidate to support in the primaries did not lend credibility to the organisation.
“It is totally wrong for the UPU leadership to first give its support to Chief Omo Agege, who allegedly funded the UPU in recent times only to abandon him and switch support to Deputy Governor Amos Utuama as the most senior Urhobo in government, only to abandon him at the very last minute to support David Edebrie.
“In fact, such inexplicable flip-flops lend credence to the otherwise wild allegation that the UPU may have collected a million dollars from Delta state’s Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan to do his bidding.
“As though the allegation that the UPU sold the Urhobo nation to Uduaghan was not bad enough, the UPU has admitted that the Olu of Warri, Ogaime Atiwashe II, also influenced UPU’s decision, saying it actually met with him before deciding to support Edebvie. In essence, this means that the Olu of Warri now tells the Urhobo where to go despite the existence of numerous respectable traditional rulers in Urhobo land. Did the UPU confer with them?
Now, notable Urhobo sons and daughters are up in arms with the UPU for abandoning its real role and dabbling amateurishly in the murky waters of politics. The daily advertisements in numerous newspapers over the UPU stance testify to this.
According to Opute, “The threat that UPU has instructed the Urhobo people to vote against Senator Authur Ifeanyi Okowa and the PDP in all strata of 2015 elections is now being rubbished by the day.
“And that is not a surprise; PDP, stakeholders, in Abraka kingdom in Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State have reassured the party’s governorship candidate, Ifeanyi Okowa, and other candidates of the party of massive vote during the 2015 general elections.”
“The resolution taken during an enlarged meeting of the PDP, convened by the former local government chairman of Ethiope East and Director of Youth Mobilisation, Delta State PDP chapter, Sunday Onoriode, was attended by party leaders from the three wards of Abraka community.
“There, leaders from the three wards, Chiefs Tony Onoharigho, Sapele Atigogo; Cheko Inomiesaha, Warri; Godday Kizito, Oweh, Felix Erhimedafe, Wilson Agbure and Grace Uwhumiakpo, stated that Abraka community is PDP’s home and will continue to vote for the party in all elections.
“Also, a former member of the of House of Representatives, John Edijala, in the December 17 edition of the Vanguard Newspaper, called on the Chief Joe Omene-led leadership of UPU to apologise to Urhobo people and resign,” Opute conclude.
In the interim, UPU’s opposition to Okowa has led to two things; first it has sensitized the other ethnic groups and led to the introspection which showed that it was not Urhobo votes that made even Urhobo sons such as Felix Ibru and James Ibori governors – as Delta North voted overwhelmingly for them while Urhobo often voted for other candidates. Second, UPU is now battling against open rebellion from several fronts. A former member of the of House of Representatives, Mr. John Edijala, in the December 17 edition of the Vanguard newspaper, called on the Chief Joe Omene-led leadership of Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, to apologise to Urhobo people and resign.
Now, Omene is fighting to retain his post; a faction of the UPU has emerged, sacked him and proclaimed its support for the All Progressive Congress governorship candidate, Olorogun O’Tega Emerhor , while Omene’s faction supports the Labour Party candidate, Chief Great Ogboru.
In the build-up to the December 8, 2014 Delta state PDP governorship primary in Asaba, the UPU went combative in its stance that only an Urhobo person, was qualified to be the Delta state governor. Thus, the UPU, an otherwise socio-cultural group turned lethally political and directed all Urhobo delegates to vote for the anointed Urhobo candidate, Chief David Edebvie.
Despite that stance, Okowa romped to an easy victory, riding on the crest of a dream – the votes of delegates from all across the state, including some Urhobo persons.
Now that the UPU is divided, with each side supporting a different candidate, it means that the 30 per cent or so votes which belong to the Urhobo people would be divided into three – to Emerhor, Ogboru and Okowa. Yet, it remains to be explained, how and why the falsehood that the Urhobo people controlled over 60 per cent of the state’s votes, despite the census and figures and voting records of the past elections.
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