The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has chided the Governor of Delta State and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) vice presidential candidate, Ifeanyi Okowa for not addressing the issues raised in E.K. Clark’s open letter to him.
It will be recalled that Clark had last week written an open letter to Okowa accusing him of betraying the south by becoming the running mate to Atiku Abubakar.
Clark also accused him of neglecting oil-producing communities in Delta state. Okowa was also accused of using monies meant for the development of oil-bearing communities to develop his area which is not an oil-producing community, among other issues.
But in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Ken Robinson, PANDEF berated Okowa for several media attacks against Clark in a bid to avoid answering to the veracity of the issues raised.
The statement reads in part:
“As a regional body, that represents the interests of the people of the entire Niger Delta, PANDEF is compelled to note that the responses, on the matter, by Okowa’s Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, and other sycophantic liegemen, are thoughtless and disingenuous.
“It would even become more worrying if the invectives from the “attack dogs” signify Governor Okowa’s true inner reflections.
“Amongst other things, the Commissioner for Information, in particular, stated that Chief Clark, at his age, should be a unifier and not bent on dividing the country. That is not only fatuous but nonsensical.
“For the purpose of correcting Okowa’s messengers, and to set the records right, for future generations, it is necessary to remind Governor Okowa and his misguided aides of some facts.
“Without doubt, there is no other Nigerian, living or dead, who has played roles to unify this country like Chief E. K. Clark has done.
“For over 70 years, the respected national leader has continued to play overriding nationalistic roles, which was acknowledged, perhaps unintended, in the Commissioner’s response to Chief’s letter.”
The statement recalled the role Clark played in the emergence of Atiku as the PDP presidential candidate in 2019 after “Atiku led the marathon gang-up against our son, Dr Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, by championing the formation of the new PDP. Yet Chief Clark stood for him a few years later.”
PANDEF which gave Okowa, 48 hours to retract and withdraw his attacks on Clark in his own interest, reminded him that “a child that is well brought up does not exchange words with his father when scolded in the public.”
