Leaders of former Delta agitators across the seven states of the region have endorsed the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Yusuf Baba‑Ahmed, for Saturday’s election. The ex‑Niger Delta militant leaders, together with a new think‑tank representing the oil‑producing ethnic nationalities of the area, warned against rigging the general elections and manipulating the results. They demanded the immediate withdrawal of the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and his running mate, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, from the race.
The former agitators, operating under the Conference of Ex‑militants for Niger Delta Industrial Rebirth, issued a 10‑point communique after a well‑attended conference in Port Harcourt. Participating groups included CENDIR, Oporoza House, Ijaw Leadership Stakeholders Working Group, the Movement for Survival of Ijaw Ethnic Nationality of the Niger Delta, Ogoni Renaissance, Urhobo Progress Vanguard, Edo Posterity Summit, Isoko Equity Agenda, Kalabari Vision Vanguard, Ndokwa Progress Roundtable, Ondo Akatapa Oil and Gas Watch, Niger Delta Coast Guards, Niger Delta Riverine Security Network, and Niger Delta Congress. The communique was signed by General Commander Tabu Obriki, Commander (Land and Sea) Abel Tariah, Mega Senior Prefect 1 Chief Long John Ebikaribo, High Chief Commander Solomon Oga, Marine Captains R.S. Uduboh, E.J. Dein, E.G. Ebikeme, M.N. Emberru, Tonye Wokoma of Oil Producing Ethnic Nationalities for Good Governance, and Elder Timi Kaiser‑Wilhelm Ogoriba.
The declaration was made in alliance with a new body of Niger Delta elders, leaders, and stakeholders known as Oil Producing Ethnic Nationalities for Good Governance, after six months of painstaking and inclusive consultations across the seven Niger Delta states since mid‑September 2022. The former militant leaders and their alliances expressed a vision of a new Niger Delta region governed not by guns but by intellect, and not by politicians but by statesmen and nation‑builders. They emphasized the need for forward‑looking leaders who think about the future of their people and posterity. After critically examining the four frontline candidates and their manifestos, they settled on the Labour Party’s Peter Obi.
The communique states in part: “Today, we, the undersigned ex‑militants of the Niger Delta region, being of well‑known public identity, in full alliance with our elder statesmen and leaders of the Oil Producing Ethnic Nationalities for Good Governance, have reached a clear conclusion that Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, possesses the highest governance intelligence quotient, creative industrial competence, innate integrity, compassionate potential, and the propensity to implement practical solutions to the chronic leadership failures, environmental degradation, and corruption that have long impeded development in our region. Having arrived at this unanimous conclusion, we passionately appeal to every ex‑militant, youth, women’s group, and ethnic nationality leadership in the region to accept our reasoning and deliver every ballot paper that reaches the soil, shores, creeks, cities, towns, camps, and hamlets of the Niger Delta for Mr. Obi and his running mate, Sen. Yusuf Datti Baba‑Ahmed, as President and Vice President of Nigeria on February 25, 2023.”
While acknowledging that the Nigerian constitution grants every voting‑age citizen the franchise to choose any candidate, the statement condemns a minority of rebels and renegades among ex‑militants, youth groups, ethnic leaders, traditional rulers, and other citizens who have shamelessly endorsed the PDP’s Atiku Abubakar. It declares unequivocally that Atiku Abubakar is an “unfeeling Fulani” who, alongside the “visionless” Delta governor Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa, has shown contempt for southerners and violated the unwritten 24‑year‑old political code of North‑South power rotation intended to ensure equity and peaceful coexistence.
By arrogantly insisting on running for president immediately after the eight years of “catastrophic, genocidal and traumatizing” misrule of the sitting Fulani president, Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar and his ally Okowa have gambled the last political home run of their careers. Their only remedy, the communique warns, is to summon the courage to withdraw from the presidential race within the few hours remaining before the February 25 polls, thereby turning “from villains to heroes at the nick of time.” The choice, it concludes, is theirs.
Comments are closed for this story.