Mr. Keyamo, in an open letter to the governor,
alleged that Mr. Uduaghan interfered in the duties of the state
electoral commission during the last local government chairmanship
election by replacing the Warri South-West candidate with Mr. Tomopolo’s
younger brother on the eve of the election.
The lawyer said the governor summoned one Weyinmi
Omadeli to his private residence in Warri on Thursday, October 23,
2014- barely 48 hours to the election- and informed him that he had
given orders to the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission, DSIEC,
to replace his name with that of George Ekpemupolo, the younger brother
of Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo.
“For you to summon Mr. Omadeli on the eve of an
election and inform him that his name had been replaced smacks of
high-level interference with the job of DSIEC. It clearly shows that
DSIEC is only an appendage of the Delta State Government”.
The lawyer listed five reasons why the action by
the governor was wrong and said that the governor’s decision “is capable
of igniting a crisis that will affect all of us”.
“The decision was taken whimsically and it is
unjust, unfair, illegal and ungodly. Consequently, it is unacceptable
and will be challenged legally and politically,” Mr. Keyamo said in the
letter.
“It also depicts the sorry and comatose state of
DSIEC in the hands of the State Government (it is the same all over the
country, anyway).
But, why did DSIEC not have the courtesy to write
or summon him to break the news (assuming, but without conceding, that
they have the powers to do so?) Sir, you are not the Chairman of DSIEC
and you have no business replacing one candidate with another in an
election,” the lawyer wrote.
He said it was wrong that Mr. Omadeli’s name was substituted without cogent reasons.
Mr. Keyamo said since the administration of James
Ibori, a “truce was reached whereby it was agreed that the Ijaws and
Itsekiris would be taking their turns in the governance of Warri
South-West L.G.A”.
He went on to ask the governor why he chose an Ijaw man for the position.
“What then is your rationale for this decision?
Whom amongst the stakeholders of these two great and illustrious tribes
in Delta State did you call to a meeting before this ill-informed
decision? What promise or arrangement did you extract from them before
this decision?” Mr. Keyamo asked.
Alleging that the governor sacrificed Mr. Omadeli
for his 2015 senatorial ambition, Mr. Keyamo said the governor returned
George Ekpemupolo, an Ijaw by tribe, to pacify the Ijaws so they can
support him.
“Your Excellency, I hate to say this – but say
it, I must: there is a clear picture in the public domain that because
you are Itsekiri by tribe and the member representing Warri South-West
in the State
House of Assembly is also an Itsekiri man, and
because you also plan to go to the Senate by 2015, you had no choice but
to sacrifice Mr. Omadeli to the Ijaws so that all three slots would not
go to Itsekiri.
“You opted to sacrifice the slot of your Itsekiri
tribe to the Ijaws to protect your personal interest. In other words,
your Senatorial ambition has a big part to play in this whole mess,” Mr.
Keyamo stated.
He called on the governor to quickly set up a
truly independent Local Government Election Tribunal because he (Mr.
Keyamo) will proceed to the tribunal on behalf of Mr. Omadeli.
He ended his letter by advising the governor
to “do the needful by summoning all stakeholders to explain to them and
to also extract commitments from them as to the way forward in the
delicate power play between the Ijaws and Itsekiris before it leads to
uncontrollable conflagration”.
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