All seems to be okay, despite the unconfirmed rumour that there exists factional Caretaker Committee to manage the affairs of the people of Ndokwa nation, pending when election is held to fill the vacant executive.
The Chairman of the NNU electoral Committee, Sir Ken Okolugbo, in this Interview had debunked the news going round that there is conflicting Caretaker Committee, but only one, headed by Dr. Tabs Tambowei. He praised the wisdom of the Ndokwa Sons and Daughters who came together to set up the caretaker committee.
In this interview, Conducted by www.ndokwareporters.com Reporter, Martina Ewefa he also talked on other issues affecting the people of Ndokwa.
Sir as the Chairman of the Electoral Committee, there seems to be nothing happening when you announced there will be election for the NNU for September 12, 2020
Okolugbo: Well, not that there is nothing happening, we announced the election to have it at a convenient time, when we are sure the pandemic will not affect our people who will be coming to vote, as we were expecting over 500 delegates for the election. As at the time we announced for the election, we still have the issue of those who were trying to reconcile the different factions in the union. It is not in our position to reconcile factions, but the caretaker committee, which is on ground, had taken initiative to reconcile all the dissenting forces so that we can have one united election. We are actually putting together a register, which is most important of this election. If we don’t have the register, we can’t have election. There is a committee in place incharge of this register, headed by Barr Sam Chukwuji, the former Local Government Chairman of Ndokwa East, and now a Special Adviser to the Delta State Governor. A credible personality.
What is the Situation Now sir, as you have a conflicting Caretaker Committees for NNU?
Okolugbo: We don’t have a conflicting Caretaker Committee, the truth about it is that, we have credible Ndokwa Children, who put together a Caretaker Committee, why they put together this Caretaker Committee was because it was the case of doctrine of necessity. Don’t forget that when my electoral committee was inaugurated, we were supposed to have done the election 60 days before the expiration of the executive led by High Chief Benson Opone, but we couldn’t do it because of the pandemic, that was the height of the Coronavirus attack in the nation, where everywhere was on lockdown. In the wisdom of some Ndokwa Sons, like High Chief Justice Obi, Prof. Okecha, Pharm. Enebeli, Johnson Opone, and so many other credible sons and daughters of Ndokwa who were former Presidents of NNU, who came together to setup the committee led by Dr. Tabs Tabowei, a very credible Ndokwa man, and looking at those who put together the Caretaker Committee together you cannot fault them. These are a very prominent credible sons and daughters, you cannot fault them. If you remove them from the Ndokwa equation, you cannot be talking of the union. That’s the only Caretaker Committee that is on ground.
People should learn to accept that in every situation, that where we don’t have a substantive executive, we don’t want to have a lacuna, which is while we want to have this election and put all these issues behind us.
Sir, why do you hope for an election to have a substantive control for the NNU?
Okolugbo: If you look at the Caretaker Committee, the mandate was such that it should not be beyond this. And under extreme circumstances, they gave it a lifeline of 9 months. And by the time it gets to December it would be 6 months this committee would have been in place. So we are doing everything we can to ensure that the election holds in December. Because if we don’t have an electoral register, we cannot have this elections. I know we had had time to put up this register, but we had some challenges which had kept the register from fine tuned and concluded. But we are going to fine tune it and conclude it on or before December 2020. We look forward to have this election by December by God’s grace.
I am sure you are aware of the blockage of the Asaba-Ughelli road by Ndokwa Youths. What is your take on this?
Okolugbo: You see. If we don’t have a caretaker committee, the matter would had escalated more than that. You don’t have to blame some of these youths. They had looked at it that we have suffered degradation in Ndokwa. We are oil producing but we had not getting a fair share. As the chairman of the Electoral Committee, I don’t think I have to go into details of some of what they said. But most Ndokwa people will support the facts that we had been denied so much. We had never had a federal minister. We had never had a nomination of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. We had never had an Ambassador, the highest we had gotten if I will remember, is Chief Gabriel Amuchi, who was the Managing Director of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA. And that is the highest Ndokwa had gotten, and I don’t think that is good enough for a nation that produces so much in terms of oil. We have over 8 oil companies. And don’t forget that 480MWTS of electricity is generated from Ndokwa nation. Today they are increasing it to over a 1000MWTS been produced from Ndokwa nation. All these are all the reasons we have to get an executive in place, so that they can work together to get these things done for the Ndokwa People, in the light of the Federal Polytechnic that they talked should be in Kwale. All these are not my mandate. My mandate is to just ensure that elections are done. But we will appeal to our youths to give peace a chance, while the elders will continue with these negotiations.
