By Prosper Erere,
Proposed Ododegho community elections in Ughelli North local government area of Delta State has been postponed indefinitely by the electoral committee chairman over security threat.
The election which was to be held on February 1 , 2020, was prosponed as the presence of the combined security agents could not douse the tension that was heightened.
Chairman of the electoral committee, Mr. Okpako Emonena in his speech said, “The election in Ododegho community is postponed because of the tension in the arena.
“During the accreditation process, suspected hoodlums disrupted the process by collecting our accreditation materials from those that were assigned.
“The entrance to the election venue was destroyed giving room for unaccredited persons to gain access and we find out that if we conduct the election under the tensed condition, we may not arrive at the credibility which is the aim, hence we have to postpone it till further notice.
“We will meet with the elders, central executive and the representative of the local government and communicate a new day to the candidates”. Emonena held.
Reacting, one of the presidential candidates, Mr. Jacob Onokpasa said, “In fact I am not happy over the postponement because I discovered that the process was due to the reaction of my opponents.
My opponents instigated what Led to the postponement because they knew we will win them and that fear made them to petition us to Asaba.
“While I am not happy with this second postponement, I will appeal to our supporters to remain calm because in any day the election is fixed, we shall come out victorious.” Onokpasa assured.
Also speaking, Mr. Mayor Egajivwie a presidential candidate said, “You saw what happened today, the people of Ododegho community are tired of stagnancy.
“Let’s take what happened today to be the will of God but remember its not over until our victory is restored. Please Let’s keep the victory spirit alive.
“The community has decided that time has passed for a single person to be dictating it’s affairs and they will follow and I bet you if the election is conducted for 100 times, we will win. All we are saying is that Ododegho should move forward.
“I am appealing to my supporters to remain calm, they should not cause trouble because after elections, we all will come for a round table talk, no need to kill ourselves as brothers.”Egajivwie said.
It’s a show of shame on the path of the Electoral committee to postpone the election with those flimsy reasons. I see the postponement of the election as a result of compromisation.
From his speech he postponed the election because he was asked to postpone the election by the Governors SSA.
If truly the accreditation Marker was stolen as he alleged and he feels its enough reasons to cancel the election why then did he ask the good people of ododegho to queue behind their candidates of choice before announcing the cancelation?
Asking the people to queue behind contestants was a clear plot to see the balance or chance of winning on both parties.
I ask him;
Was the Marker stolen before he asked the people to queue behind their candidates of choice? or,
Was it after the people queued?
Why did you announce to the people that you have put up a six man committee to inspect those on the queue in other to fish out strangers and ineligible votes if not to replace the work of the accreditation?
As at when the first stranger was apprehended at the gate what disciplinary action did he or the security personnels took to deter others from trying same? Instead they decid d to break the head of an innocent Ododegho son he was discussing with another Ododegho son.
I believe he or they has an interior motive for postponing the election.
Ododegho must be great!