21st December, 2010
“What we are trying to do is not just come into government for the sake of it; we are coming into governance because we believe that there is a deficit in governance in that place (Delta State), and it must be corrected,” says Great Ovadje Ogboru.
Ogboru has been keen on ensuring that the country installs leaders that genuinely rise up to the cause of the people and has again condemned the poor level of development in Delta State, where crude oil is mined and yet most people in the state can barely make ends meet.
In the 90’s, he was alleged to have aided the attempt of Gideon Orkar to unseat the dictator and military head of state, General Ibrahim Babangida.
He said though he has no axe to grind with anyone, he insists on getting the mandate he believes is his. Ogboru is strongly convinced he would have won the April 2007 elections with landslide victory if elections had been conducted in the state.
The test of this came up one month after the court verdict that declared Uduaghan’s governorship invalid. At the inaugural rally on December 1, a mammoth crowd confirmed its solidarity with Ogboru as traders voluntarily closed shop to support the rally. He agreed with them that their dreams would have been fulfilled by now if there had been credible elections in the state in 2007, when former governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, the PDP candidate, was foisted on the state.
“It is not true that we went to court over irregularities or fraud; we went to court to tell that court that the elections did not take place at all, and the Court of Appeal agreed with us … in this case, no votes were cast. Neither PDP nor INEC could produce a single, original document of the purportedly conducted election in the state,†Ogboru said
Credible election is a basic issue that cannot be compromised if the state will ever achieve meaningful economic growth and stable development,” he added.
