NO POWER SHIFT PACT IN DELTA STATE........ SSG

Comr. Ovouzourie Macaulay in a chat with newsmen

A PROMINENT member of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Secretary to the Delta State Government, Ovouzourie Macaulay, has denied the existence of an agreement for power shift among the three senatorial districts.

Fielding questions from reporters at Asaba, Macaulay, a member of the G3, which campaigned vigorously for incumbent Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan in 2007, said that before now, he 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 scribe explained 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 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 marginalisation. 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 added that he was 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.