By Francis Sadhere
Delta Central Senatorial aspirant under the platform of the Democratic Peoples Party, DPP, Sir Richard Odibo has said that his vision for the Urhobo nation was to reposition its image both at the state and the national levels.
Speaking to journalists in his office in Warri, recently, Sir Odibo added that his vision was to create the enabling environment between himself and others so that they can see the Urhobos from another perspective, lamenting that the image that was being painted of the Urhobos were that of aggressive, oppressive and violent people.
He said; “For some time now Urhobo has been relegated to the background and how do we get ourselves back to the good old days when Urhobo was recognized and was playing prominent position and role in the federal and state levels. We cannot do that by fighting or antagonizing our neighbours. We cannot do that fighting imaginary enemies.
What I intend to do is to build bridges of friendship across other ethnic nationalities with a view to bringing the dividends of democracy to bare on the Urhobo nation.”
He said his chances of picking the party ticket were bright as he was the oldest member of the party, adding that with his wealth of experience as a grassroots mobilizer his party will surely give him the ticket because the people were also behind him.
Reacting to question that his party has no structure, Sir Odibo said that DPP has a very strong structure in Delta State, adding its supporter were the down trodden in the society and that was why they were able to win the Delta Central Senatorial seat that took the late Ewherido to the senate in 2011.
He added that it was the new party, APC that had no structure in the state, emphasizing that their party was going to win the Delta Central Senatorial bye-election as they did in 2011.
He lambasted the ruling party, PDP for saying that they must win the forthcoming Delta Central Senatorial bye-election, describing them as undemocratic.
“PDP has said that they must take the seat. And when I looked at the word ‘must’, they are talking like none democrats. They would not say ‘must’ unless they have other plans to rig. We pray that they do not have such plans and they do not resort toviolence. If they do we are going to resist them. It is not just DPP but the market women, students and the people that will resist them. Nobody wants violence in Urhobo land,” he warned.
On the rumour that the party had anointed a candidate, Sir Odibo said that the party had not anointed anybody for the seat, noting that they were going to conduct a free and fair primary that will be witnessed by everybody.
