A group, Delta State Ethnic Nationalities Youth Leaders, has alleged that some external and internal conspirators, including the National Chairman of the All Progressives Comrade, Adams Oshiomhole, want to truncate the governorship and State Assembly elections in Delta State.
The youths claimed that Oshiomhole had over time threatened to “seized power in Delta or cause crisis”, alleging that if anything untoward happened in the state, the APC national chairman should be held responsible.
Addressing a news conference, the youths, drawn from Ijaw, Isoko, Urhobo, Itsekiri and Anioma ethnic nationalities, said Delta State has been a peaceful state as was exemplified in the last Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections but the former Edo State Governor has been scheming to cause unrest in the state ahead the Governorship and State Assembly elections.
The youths said: “The State recorded no or little electoral violence during the last exercise, which can be attested to by its peaceful status.
“We do expect that the upcoming elections will be more peaceful than ever before.
“Deltans have resolved to play an advanced and civilised politics where peace and harmony is the centre of our ambitions.”
Speaking on behalf of the coalition, President-General, Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities, Pereotubo Roland Oweilaemi, warned that Oshiomhole shouldn’t dare to come near Delta State, reiterating: “We are ready to resist any external and internal conspirators who want to foment strife in our dear State.
“What we want in the elections is to allow Deltans to exercise their franchise without any form of molestation or intimidation.”
The youth groups added: “We are worried that certain elements from neighbouring states want to foment trouble in the State during the elections in order that their preferred candidates win the elections by any means necessary.
“Prominent among such characters who are boasting that they will do everything necessary to rig the elections and to subvert the will of the people, including coming to Delta State on the election day to coordinate the activities for his party, is Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the National Chairman of the APC.
“While Oshiomhole is free to campaign for his party within the confines of the law, he has a limit in meddling with the affairs of Delta State, which is not his State of origin.
“The Electoral Act, 2010 is very clear on where and how Oshiomhole should conduct himself during the elections.”
The youths quoted that Sections 58, 124, 125, 127, 128, 129, 130 and 131 of the Act did not permit Oshiomhole to be in Delta State on the Election Day.
They said: “We warm him to desist from his desperate act of meddling into Delta State election. The APC National Chairman’s presence in Delta State on the Election Day will be an invitation to anarchy. It will be a recipe for total breakdown of law and order in the State.
“We the Ethnic Nationalities’ Youths Leaders in the State will not fold our arms and allow foreigners to cause an avoidable crisis for us. We will resist Oshiomhole’s desperation to plunge Delta State into a big crisis. We therefore appeal to President Buhari and people of goodwill to call Adams Oshiomhole to order before things get out of control. Should there be any breakdown of law and order in the State then Nigerians should hold Oshiomhole responsible.
“We also appeal to all members of the various political parties in the State to be law abiding and refrain from acts that will lead to needless hostilities in our dear State. Let us collectively fight against electoral violence of any kind and resist the undue interference by foreigners who are heating up the polity for us.
“On the planned deployment of security agencies to conduct the elections, we do not have much to be worried save for the fact that our courts have bared the military from being drafted into election matters. The government should simply obey what the law says.
“Again, the presence of the security agencies in the State in the last elections didn’t deter Deltans from exercising their franchise as the former were neutral to some extent. We are appealing to the security agencies to once again be neutral in the forthcoming elections. Deltans have no problem with them as far as they are neutral in the elections. They should not play partisan politics when performing their roles.”