The group claimed that so much have been said about it from both ends; pro and anti-zoning elements in the state.
The group posited that it would not accept cooked up lies from Urhobo leaders aimed at picking the governorship ticket.
According to DIGAG, “What we cannot take is the continuous lies being peddled by prominent Urhobo leaders in the State. Our attention was once again drawn by a news publication in the Vanguard Newspaper which stated that prominent Urhobo sons and daughters gathered to strategize on how their Senatorial District will take the PDP guber ticket in 2023.
A statement on Saturday 21st January 2021, signed by Amb. Okporu Ebi Augustine, Director-General (DG), of the group, said “We are not against the scheming of any Senatorial District for the 2023 governorship ticket in the PDP. Our concern is the lies about the so-called esoteric and non-existence zoning miasma”.
The Ijaw group called on a former governor of the state and a stalwart of the party in Delta Central, Chief James Onanefe Ibori and a former Minister, Prof. Sam Oyovwaire, not to join issues with their kinsmen.
Said the group: “Chief James Onanefe Ibori with due respect to him as a prominent leader in the State and a former Governor ought not to have joined the bandwagon of those political mischief makers about the zoning issue.
“Chief Ibori, Prof. Sam Oyovbaire and their acolytes knew very well that the much touted zoning drama in PDP, Delta State has been serially breached by their Urhobo brothers since 2007 to date.
“If Chief Ibori is too busy to probe into his archive then let him engage his aids to simply do the research for him about the PDP primary elections in Delta State since 2007. If there was zoning, why did his Urhobo brothers contested against Uduaghan in 2007 at the PDP primary election? If there was anything like zoning then why his Urhobo brothers contested against Okowa in 2019?
“As Chief Ibori and Prof. Sam Oyovbaire know very well, every transitional elections in the State is opened to every qualified Deltans from the three Senatorial Districts to participate. 2023 elections cannot be different. We did it in 2007 and 2019 and winners emerged in the persons of Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan from the Delta South and Sen. (Dr.) Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa from the Delta North respectively.
“On the claim by Chief Ibori that the Central District massively supported Uduaghan in his first and second terms is not true as the records in public places testified on the contrary. In Uduaghan’s second term, the Delta Central massively voted against him. They voted for Chief Ogboru and his Democratic People’s Party (DPP) which made the Party to win majority of the House of Assembly seats from the Central. The PDP also lost the governorship election in two thirds of the local governments in the Central District.
“The Urhobos replicated the same thing in 2019 when they presented two governorship candidates from the APC and the LP to contest against Okowa. Chief Ibori cannot feign ignorance of these undisputed facts. Prof. Same Oyovbaire should not also deceive himself by calling on Ijaw and Isoko people to rescind their governorship ambitions in 2023. That is an assault on our collective will. As people who have been faithful and committed to the ideals of the ruling PDP in the State since 1999, we deserve love, care and honour by our fickle Urhobo brothers.
“Sen. Okowa in spite of the overbearing influence of the Urhobos should not make the mistake of imposing a particular candidate on Deltans. He secured his victory in 2019 through the suicidal ideation of the Delta South people. We hope that he will allow the will of Deltans to prevail in 2023. It is not a joke that political tsunami awaits us like what we saw in our neighboring Bayelsa and Edo States if the PDP imposes a candidate on Deltans in 2023.
“Although we have been faithful and committed to the ideals of the PDP since 1999 which had hitherto saw the Party’s victories through thick and thin in all the elections, Delta South has the potential to end the dominance of the Party in the State. It therefore behooves on Okowa and the PDP leadership to provide a level playing field for all guber contestants to participate in 2023”, it added.
