I want to take advantage of this medium to thank all Ekakuro, Okpe Community leaders, Women and Youths for their support during the Senate elections of 25th February. It is a victory for Okpe. I would also wish to assure all Okpe that as your Senator I will take responsibility for bringing prosperity to the Okpe Nation (amongst many other responsibilities) and will be a Senator to all members of the Delta Central constituency regardless of which political party they may belong to and whether they voted for me or not. I state this here in full appreciation that I was born an Okpe man well before I joined any political party and this leaves me with certain responsibilities to my fellow Okpe.
That being said the results of the just concluded election show that the voters in Okpe Local Government gave the candidacy of Chief Amori more support than that of their fellow Okpe brother. I understand that this was as a result of political ties and strategy but I would wish to posit that those who preached that Okpe could not have the Senate and Governor were only doing so to deceive the Okpe people for their own very selfish interests.
Please note that an Okpe man has now emerged as Senator-elect today and as pointed out by many enlightened Okpe, the two leading candidates Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and Rt. Hon Sheriff Oborevwori are both maternally Okpe. So whoever wins the elections on March 11, Okpe would have indeed achieved both Governor and Senator.
Secondly, I understand that Chief Amori threatened the PDP Okpe political Leaders that should Okpe not support him in the Senate elections then he and his supporters would fail Rt. Hon Sheriff at the polls. I would suggest here that if Chief Amori had the political power to fail Rt. Hon Sheriff, then he should have been more than capable of winning his own election without threatening the Okpe PDP candidate. Additionally, having lost the senate seat and the vice presidential position, the Delta State PDP would never get to a position where Chief Amori would work against his last remaining source of politically related income. This empty threat was clearly just that.
Thirdly, as both candidates are maternally Okpe there is no benefit to the Okpe Kingdom to stand behind a particular candidate unless the witches and wizards have confirmed victory for the aforesaid candidate. Should Okpe stand behind Oborevwori and deny Omo-Agege his birthright then the kingdom will most likely fail to benefit from our ties to Omo-Agege through his Okpe family in Aghalokpe.
Fourthly, I am aware that the HRM Dr Emmanuel Ekemejewan Sideso, Abe I, the Ovie of Uvwie Kingdom is campaigning fiercely for Rt. Hon Sheriff Oborevwori and I believe that this vigour stems from the Oborevwori’s lineage to the Uvwie Kingdom. He is maternally from Okpe (his great-grandmother was from Osubi) but he is formally recognized as a son of Uvwie who has achieved much for his people.
There is a poor history of maternally-Okpe office holders such as the Late Senator (Prof) Eferakeya and even the current PDP State Chairman, Chief Kingsley Esiso. Okpe can only truly claim what is rightfully ours and when Rt. Hon Sheriff Oborevwori is claimed as the conquering Uvwie son we should not feign surprise.
Fifthly, my party’s victory at the polls for my ticket as well as the victory of the APC Senatorial candidate in Delta south should be an indication that a PDP victory for governor is far from certain. PDP under Okowa has not done well and the people of Delta state are well aware of this.
Sixthly, in the last days of my campaign, my attention was drawn to a declaration of support for Chief Amori by the Okpe Christian Assembly (OCA). This body is meant to be a non-partisan body of Okpe ministers and yet they came out to support a candidate from Mosogar in preference to their well-qualified son. Equally, the Okpe Union, another supposedly nonpartisan body also threw their support behind Chief Amori despite my position as a member of the Board of Trustees. The Okpe people must learn to raise up our own for the greater good of the Kingdom.
Lastly, where the two gubernatorial candidates have both been identified as being maternally Okpe then whilst the various Okpe institutions should be neutral to the candidates the Okpe people should be asked to judge the candidates based on their antecedents in office. Here Omo-Agege has made very public the very lengthy list of projects he has executed in the Urhobo Nation, inclusive of those in the Okpe Kingdom.
On the other hand Rt. Hon Oborevwori has not been bold enough to campaign based on his antecedents in office and it is also truly to his shame that Okpe local government does not have a single commercial bank operating within its boundaries. Instead it was our own Okpe speaker who approved with the House of Assembly the establishment of three Tertiary institutions in the state with two going to Dr. Okowa’s Delta North and one going to Delta South. Orerokpe would have benefited immensely from having a tertiary institution sited there and I wonder what Dr. Okowa compensated our Speaker with in place of the people of Delta central having their own tertiary institution sited within our boundaries. Rt. Hon Oborevwori has been Speaker for about 6 years and at this stage, he must be asked what projects he has carried out for his people, and specifically what legacy projects is he most proud of.
In conclusion, I aver that I write this purely to ensure that Okpe is aware of the real issues at stake for the future. There will regrettably be some readers who will misinterpret my intentions here, but that is a price paid when you are holding public office. I aver however that I have been declared the winner and would want to be magnanimous in victory and will continue to work to unite the Okpe people for the development and prosperity of the Kingdom. Okpe should celebrate that we will have a Governor who is at least maternally Okpe but to make the victory truly one which uplifts the Okpe kingdom, we need to elect the candidate that is more qualified to be Governor of our state, the candidate that has the greater experience in government and the one who will work harder to bring prosperity to Okpe. I have made my choice, as must all other Okpe sons and daughters but this choice must be based on the recognition that the two candidates are both maternally Okpe.
May God bless the Orodje of Okpe kingdom
May God bless the Okpe Kingdom
Signed:
Okakuro Ede Dafinone, FCA
Senator-elect, Delta Central District
