…Says PIB Should Be reviewed To accommodate 10% Operating Cost For Host Communities
Executive Assistant to the Governor of Delta State on Communications, Dr Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe, has debunked unfounded allegation that power rotation within the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Delta, has been technically voided by Governor Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, through body language and public comments.
The Eacgov while responding to questions on ARISE TV live programme, “The Morning Show,” on Tuesday July 6, 2021, with lead Anchor, Dr Reuben Abati, said Okowa is neutral as to who will become his successor in 2023, saying that the governor strongly believe that God, alone has the capacity to know who will take over from him.
He posited that the perceived agitation may be related to the alleged implied or express repudiation of the power rotation arrangement, wherein some PDP members in Delta Central and South Senatorial Districts contested for the office of governor, when in 2015, it was not the turn of their districts to produce the Governor, under the power rotation arrangement.
He however assured that leaders of the party in the state and incumbent governor, Senator Okowa, will take appropriate steps, together with other leaders across the three senatorial districts to resolve grey areas, if any, in the power shift conflict and lead PDP to another landslide victory in 2023.
Oghenesivbe further asserted that Okowa and past governors in the state, are best of friends and political partners, contrary to unfounded rumours making the rounds that the governor’s statement about power rotation created friction between former governor, Chief James Ibori, and the incumbent governor.
The Justice of the Peace, JP, said that the dissolution of cabinet by Okowa was not meant to drop Ibori loyalists; Olorogun David Edevbie, Chiedu Ebie, Esq and others, pointing out that Okowa and the past governors as well as their loyalists are in good terms, and that no stranger will be able to come between them.
“To the best of my knowledge, Gov Okowa is not an obstacle to rotation of power and will never be. But it appears, in my considered opinion, that there are grey areas in the power rotation arrangement implementation, which leaders of the party in the three senatorial districts must endeavour to resolve.
“One thing is sure, the governor in collaboration with the entire state party structure will lead PDP to a landslide victory in 2023, and those peddling falsehood and negative propaganda will surely bite their tongues, because Okowa, Ibori, Uduaghan and the state party structures will work hand in hand in the forthcoming general elections.”
And on the PIB that was passed by Senate and House of Representatives, Okowa’s EAC said it appears that majority of Northern politicians in the National Assembly, are united against the progress, development and economic prosperity of oil bearing states of the Niger Delta Region, pointing out that the goose that laid the golden egg is gradually being strangled, disregarded and made subservient in the socioeconomic scheme of things in the country.
“You will recall that during the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s administration, the federal government indicated interest to divest its investments in the Joint Venture Agreements, JVA, with International Oil Companies, IOCs, so as to allocate 10% to Host Communities, and that was what the region canvassed during the PIB public hearings.
“As a region which produces over 91% of the nation’s oil and national income, 10% operating cost to Host Communities is the least we can take, and the PIB as passed is nothing but a charade, unacceptable and must be reviewed upward before Mr President’s Assent.
“If truly that our Northern brothers want a peaceful and united Nigeria, they must of a necessity do the needful and stop treating oil bearing states and communities as strangers in the distribution of oil wealth,” Oghenesivbe added.
