By Emma Arubi / Snr. Correspondent, Warri
Following his loss in the just concluded local government poll in Delta State, Bobby Omadeli has engaged the services of Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo, to fight his cause. Omadeli said he is fighting to reclaim what described as “his stolen mandate.”
The PDP Warri –South-West chairmanship candidature was from Omadeli two days to the council poll and handed over to a former chairman of the council, Hon George Ekpemukpolo, a younger brother to Chief Government Ekpemukpolo by the Governor for reasons yet to be made public.
Omadeli, in a press statement issued in Warri on Wednesday said, “events in the last one-week, especially in the build-up to the just concluded local government poll in Delta State and its aftermath, particularly as it affects the controversial and last minute substitution of my name as the authentic PDP Chairmanship candidate for Warri South-West Local Government is most unfortunate, avoidable, unconstitutional and undemocratic to say the least.
“While I want to once more use this medium to call on my teeming supporters both within and outside Warri South-West Local Government Area, particularly Ijaw and Itsekiri of Warri South-West to remain calm as well as law abiding as a result of my firm belief in the judiciary and the ability of the national and state leadership of my party, the PDP, to right this injustice in a few days. The one-tenure rotational Chairmanship between Ijaw and Itsekiri of Warri South-West Local Government Area as brokered by former governor of Delta State, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, between Ijaw and Itsekiri leaders in PDP as panacea to the protracted Warri crisis, which snowballed into the Niger Delta struggle, has no bearing with the Delta South Senatorial seat, which ethnic leaders (apolitical) of Ijaw, Itsekiri and Isoko (3Is) agreed in principle that should be rotational amongst them.”
He said linking the Warri Federal Constituency seat to Warri South-West Chairmanship was t absurd and unreasonable, saying that the last minute substitution of his name as the Warri South-West PDP Chairmanship candidate in the just concluded local government election against the wish of the people was capable of causing a fresh crisis in Warri between the Ijaw and the Itsekiri, adding, “I believe in the ability of the National chairman of my party, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, who personally handed-over the party flag to me at Asaba and the state government to reach a political truce on the way forward.”
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