Delta Gov Re-Run: Ogboru Wants Uduaghan Disqualied
Candidate of the Democratic Peoples Party, DPP, in the Delta State governorship re-run election slated for Jan. 6, 2011, Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru has called for the disqualification of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan from participating in the exercise.
Ogboru made this call during a press conference held at the Protea Hotel recently while reacting to all the scandals that characterized Uduaghan personality from his period as the Secretary to James Ibori’s government, till when he was illegally elected governor of Delta State and booted out of office by the Appeal court.
According to him, “when we put down the entire Uduaghan regime from when he was the secretary to Ibori’s government and when he became an illegal governor for three and half years and what he has done, we found ourselves in a dilemma. We then asked ourselves should this man be a candidate in a re-run election in the first place?
“In all of these, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan should not be allowed to contest and should not be elected. He cannot be elected and he’s unelectable. This is why the people of Delta State has said that they are not going to vote for him,†he said.
He said that Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan’s regime which was recently sacked by the Appeal court was an offshoot of ex-governor James Ibori’s government in Delta State.
“This regime that was recently sacked and described as illegal by the appeal court is an offshoot of the previous government that was riddled with scandals and headed by a man you all know languishing in London prison for an act of money laundering and breaking of the law of the people of UK, and of course for the outright plundering of Delta Stat treasury for selfish means.
“In all of these, Uduaghan is a major actor because he was the secretary to the government of that regime. Therefore, it was easy for them to concoct a no election and be sworn in as a continuity but the Appeal court saved us. Four of Ibori’s relation are in prison in London and Uduaghan’s name features prominently in all of their cases as a facilitator in the money laundering exercise in London.
“Unfortunately, Uduaghan has not come out openly to deny all these allegation leveled against him. He has not come out to clear his name of all these mess. He should be prosecuted because he has committed a grievous offence by stealing the peoples mandate through the back door,†he said.
He spoke just as an interest group, Delta Coalition for Change, DCC, raised concerns over failure of the commission to communicate its plans for the election, including position on voters register and date of the election.
According to the group, “we wish to submit that in order to enhance the efficiency of INEC in the Delta State re-run election, it must jettisons the idea of using the flared 2006 voters register immediately and use the new DCC machines for roper registration of voters.
“It is our recommendation that all the electoral officers, in the 25 Local Governments who have been involved in the rigging of election over the years be posted out of the state,†the group said.
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