Group Berates Isoko Protest Against Oborevwori Over Rumours Of Relocating Science Faculties to Orerokpe

***Says institutions are owned by govt, not ethnic groups

Ogheneruona Tejiri, Ughelli

Urhobo Media Practitioners Advocacy Group (UMPAG)has condemned in its entirety a protest masterminded by Isoko community alleging the state governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori of plans to relocate Faculties of Science to Orerokpe, headquarters of Okpe local government area of Delta state.

The group has said that institutions are owned and controlled by state government and not ethnic nationalities, stating that institutions are agents of development, and as such it is the prerogative of any state government to establish a university and also decides on where its campuses should be sited if need be.

In a press statement signed issued by Chief Omafume Amurun and Mr. Onojeghen Okpare Theophilus, the group expressed displeasure over the manner the Isoko mation had gone about the protest with the intent to paint the state governor in bad light.

The group had earlier emphasized that all institutions owned by government are run by government not communities where such institutions are sited, saying that no community stood against Isoko nation when the state government relocated Faculty of Law and Engineering from Delta State University,(DELSU) Abraka to Oleh in Isoko nation.

Accordng to the group, “when Faculties of Law and Engineering were moved from Delta State University, Abraka to Oleh, Isoko South Local Government Area, nobody protested it, how many protest was organised against the then governor, Chief James Ibori, when the then governor Ifeanyi Okowa relocated some Faculties to Anwai Campus, Abraka community did not protest, why now it is an issue in Isoko nation?

“There is nobody who does not know how Ozoro or Oleh was before the institutions were brought to the area and today development has covered the entire Ozoro and Oleh and both have become economic centres of both local government, yet no protest of any sort.

“So, why is Isoko nation protesting against the state government? if government has decided to move any of the faculties to any part of the state to attract development and to create jobs for the people of the area, there ought not be protest or are those protesting now don’t want another local government or communities to develop like Ozoro and Oleh in Isoko nation?

“In some parts of the country, particularly Enugu, institutions are their major source of revenue because it opens new areas for strangers to develop and venture into other businesses, which today Oleh and Ozoro are enjoying, and yet they don’t want other local governments to experience development.

“After serious scrutiny, we have seen the agitations of this group of some persons claiming to be speaking for Isoko nation as misnomer, inconsequential, greed and personal interest over the proposed relocation of the two two science facilities and the decision of the Delta state government is in right direction.”