25th April, 2013
Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Festus Keyamo, who recently announced his plans to contest in the forthcoming governorship election in Delta State, south-south Nigeria, has told P.M.NEWS that his ambition is borne out of the need to rescue a dying state from the hands of tyrants.
Speaking with our correspondent on Wednesday, Barrister Keyamo, who has been having interactive sessions with indigenes and residents of the state over his governorship ambition, said he was not going into politics for which the everyday politician in Nigeria is now known for, but on a rescue mission to save the state.
“It is part of my traditional struggles. It is one of such battles I have been fighting. I want to refrain from too much rhetoric,” he said, adding that the politicians in the state had bamboozled the people with such rhetoric only to loot the treasury and steal public funds, a practice which he said had become the order of the day.
Keyamo lamented that in spite of its financial muscle, the state had continued to retrogress while states like Edo with lesser financial powers are growing rapidly.
“Delta State has become known with the history of looting and opening the treasury for everyone in politics. If you get to the state now, you will be shocked at the level of degradation,” he lamented
The human right activist disclosed that these “treasury looters” holding the state by the jugular have already shortlisted at least three persons to continue from where the current government would stop.
He also lamented that those who have been indicted for corruptly enriching themselves at the expense of the people of the state are the same people now trying to dictate who should become the next governor of the state and are already anointing those who they think they want.
“Have we become so bad?” he asked, adding that the situation required someone with guts to salvage the state.
Asked how he thinks he could fight those with the financial muscle and currently in charge of governance in the state, Keyamo simply said: “impossible is an opinion. Impossible is nothing. That’s all I have to say.”
Keyamo appealed to Deltans, both in Nigeria and in the Diaspora for their continued support to bring back the glory of the state.
Meanwhile, the people of Ughelli, Delta state have pledged their support for Keyamo’s ambition.
The group gave their blessing to the governorship aspirant who they described as their hope in the election when Keyamo held an interactive session with the indigenes recently.
Mr. Osiwe Otega Anthony, who coordinates the Ughelli North of Delta Force United (DFU), said on behalf of his group and residents of the area, that the communities in the area have declared their support for Keyamo.
Osiwe said lack of jobs, fraud, kidnapping, drug peddling and prostitution have taken over the state which now yearns for a change.
“There is the need for someone who is pure and clean to take charge of the affairs of the state,” he said, adding that the DFU was not about Keyamo but a gathering of progressive minds who decided to come together to address the fundamental issues affecting the state.
—Eromosele Ebhomele