By Sunday Apah
Former member of the Delta State House of Assembly, Hon. Chief Efe Ofobruku, has urged the people of Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State to support Rt. Hon. Evelyn Omavowan Oboro Esq to clinch the Peoples Democratic Party ticket for the House of Representatives, Okpe/Sapele/Uvwie Federal Constituency in 2023.
Ofobruku, who made this known when Rt. Hon. Oboro Esq paid him consultative visit at his Effurun residence in Uvwie Local Government Area, said if the Uvwie people worked as a team and consolidate on their votes, she would come out victorious in the election.
According to him, “Rt. Hon. Evelyn Omavowan Oboro Esq., is my sister. We worked closely politically in 2006 when she was council chairman. She gave me opportunity to serve in a screening panel for House of Representatives and Senate elections in Adamawa state. She called me from nowhere to replace her that she won’t have the chance to go and I obliged and incidentally, I was made Secretary of the panel.
“If she didn’t have my interest, she wouldn’t have called me because I am not the only politician in Uvwie. But somewhere along the line, we parted ways, I have tried to ask myself what really happened, I still can’t find it. I used to tell people that if there is anyone that supposed to be in her political cartel, it should be me because when I least expected, I was carried along.
“Incidentally, in the past elections, apart from 2019, we have not had the opportunity of working together closely like we did before. Be that as it may, I think this is a very good opportunity for a reunion to work together. In the power arena, nobody gives you power, you struggle for it. It will not be out of place if one of us is aspiring for such exalted office.
“The duty we owe ourselves as Uvwie people is to support her, if we don’t support her, who will ? So, we must first of all show to those outside that this is our own, that will now be the motivation for others to join the train to support her.
“She performed creditably when she went to the House of Representatives. Her empowerment and development strides are second to none. I did the little I could in the last senatorial election, but she lost at the general elections for obvious reasons. Heaven and earth knows that she won the election; God knows why it happened that way.
“With your performances, it is clear that once you have the ticket, the election is a done deal because you are more popular with excellent past records than other aspirants. I assure you on behalf of myself and my foot soldiers that we will give you our full support. Whatever we felt that made us aggrieved have been put to rest. This your election come 2023 is about us the Uvwie people, no matter how you feel, if we get it wrong, we might end up having one person in government, that is, the State House of Assembly.
“So we must make sure that we go for every available opportunity. We as Uvwie people, we must be willing to contest every position to enable us get some major positions. It is not even out of place to take all. Let us do our best to send her back to the House of Representatives to enable us have a better voice in Abuja,” he added.
Earlier, Rt. Hon. Oboro Esq told Hon. Efe Ofobruku that she was in the race to further raise the standard of representation of the Okpe/Sapele/Uvwie Federal Constituency.
The former lawmaker said the visit was to officially inform Ofobruku of her intention to contest for the seat to represent the Okpe/Sapele/Uvwie Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives and to seek his support, advice and prayers.
She thanked him for the support he had given her when she won the party ticket to contest for the Senate which the party lost during the 2019 general elections for obvious reasons.
She noted that the constituency deserved to have the governorship come 2023 since Chief James Onanefe had been Governor from Ethiope Federal Constituency and the Late Senator Felix Ibru from Ughelli North/Ughelli South/Udu Federal Constituency.
According to her, “now that we have taken a stand for Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly, to be the next Governor of Delta State,” it would not be fair for her to run for the Senate when the Federal Constituency was agitating for governorship seat.
She noted that the state party chairman was also from Sapele Local Government Area while the Speaker of the State House of Assembly who would eventually be the next Governor is from Okpe Local Government Area with Uvwie, the baby local government area in the Federal Constituency, did not have a major position; hence, her appeal to consider her aspiration.
She added that Okpe, Sapele and Uvwie had all held the House of Representatives position twice each, appealing that Uvwie should be considered for the sake of equity.
She pointed out that in her first tenure; she attracted a lot of projects which included street lights, water projects, electricity transformers, classroom blocks, health centres and many others.
“On human capacity development, people were trained and given starter packs, cars, motorcycles, tricycles, sewing machines, hair dryers, barbing kits, among others.
“I also sponsored the Federal University of Petroleum Resources Bill in the House of Representatives and it was eventually signed into law, just as petitions that came to me were adequately treated.
“A good example is the Amuakpokpor Community that had oil spill issue with Nigeria Gas Company. When the petition got to my table, I took up the matter and succeeded in ensuring that they paid them in cash while I was still in office.
“So, I gave Okpe/Sapele/Uvwie Federal Constituency adequate representation. I was able to set a standard that is yet to be beaten by my predecessors and successor. I promise to setup another standard by bringing more dividends of democracy if voted for in 2023”, she added.