By Omos Oyinbode, Asaba
Few days to the general elections, the Governor of Delta State, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, has cautioned against desperation and any action that could lead to break down of law and order in the country.
Governor Uduaghan, in a breakfast meeting with journalists in Warri on Friday, observed that there were ominous signs that were capable of causing violence during the elections but stated that no position was worth dying for.
“There is no election where there is no tension because election is about struggling for power but we should caution ourselves about what to say or do in the interest of our nation.
“There has been a lot of fears about election violence. Why should people be desperate? There is no position that is so important that we should resort to loss of life,” he said.
According to him, “four or eight years is so short, we should be patient and peaceful, we should know the extent we go to sometimes to seek for power,” reiterating, “it is unfortunate that this campaigns are having regional or religious coloration.”
Governor Uduaghan assured however that President Goodluck Jonathan and the relevant security agencies were on top of the situation and have put necessary measures in place to manage the situation from snowballing into crisis situation.
Dr Uduaghan used the occasion to state that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would record overwhelming victory in Delta State, disclosing that only two gubernatorial aspirants out of more than fifteen persons who contested for primaries of the PDP, left the party to contest senatorial seat.
“We had about 18 aspirants that contested for PDP governorship primaries, two have moved to other parties, I can assure you that PDP will still come out and win the elections despite the two that left the party,” the governor said, while asserting that the Delta State PDP was least amongst the states riddled with political crises.
On the $16 bn gas city project, the Governor said nobody stopped President Goodluck Jonathan from performing the ground breaking ceremony but that his action was in the overall interest of the nation and the state.
According to him, President Jonathan has shown commitment towards the project, disclosing that during the President’s recent visit to the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse II, “the Olu thanked the President for bringing the project to this area, he did say that the project will be beneficial to everybody and requested that the President should come for the ground breaking ceremony.
“The President said it was not because of threat that made him not to perform the exercise as scheduled but he said intelligence report about what will happen after the ground breaking made him to shift the ceremony, the project is on course and nobody can threaten the President.”
On the campaign of Senator Ifeanyi Okowa for Governor of Delta State, Dr. Uduaghan said he was fully behind the party’s candidate, adding, “the state has been peaceful politically, we are going round campaigning, you should also know that is not me the people want to hear during the campaigns, it is the person who wants to take over, they want to hear about his programmes.”
