UGHELLI/Nigeria: The Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, the ruling umbrella body of the Urhobo people at home and in diaspora has condemned the position of the state governor, Dr Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa on the gentleman agreement of power rotation among the three senatorial district which the governor says was nonexistent, saying, ” Governor Okowa s dangerous gentleman agreement abrogation is a rallying call for Urhobo people of Delta central.”
In a statement, UPU said Governor Okowa is about to test the political will of the Urhobos of Central zone with his dangerous amateur verbal acrobatics that the rotation of gubernatorial slot to the senatorial zone is not guaranteed any longer and uncertain.
In the statement, UPU re-affirmed its position that the Urhobos must produce the next governor of the state, saying, it may be uncertain for governor Okowa, but for the rest of the Delta people who have seen the benefit of the mechanism for a multiculturally segment state, it is doubtless and constant that the next governor of Delta State must emerge from Delta central senatorial zone.
It said, the emergency of the next governor from Delta central is not a whim that is determined by the governor but a compact that is already tested and beyond contestation as the other senatorial district have sealed it with the precedent of taking their rotation slots, just as by the governor’s second tenure, he has sealed the deal of the rotation agreement.
It said, even if the two other zones are unwilling to respect the gentleman dispositions of the Delta central, the people of Urhobo district should see the words of the governor as a rallying call to all Urhobos to demonstrate the collective resolve of the zone as was in 1992,between SDP candidate Chief Felix Ibru and the NRC candidate, Prof.Eric Opia when the military government of Ibrahim Babangida wanted Prof. Eric Opia as the first governor of the state, just as when the issue of the state capital generated anger in Urhobo land.
UPU said as it was in 1992 when the Urhobos used their voting population strength to defeat Prof. Eric Opia and made Chief Felix Ibru as the first executive governor of the state, so shall it be in 2023, urging the Urhobos to see governor Okowa position as a challenge and duty to the Urhobo nation in 2023.
