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By Young E. Freeborn, Warri
The president-general of Unenurhie community in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State, Mr. Peter Maison, recently spotted out imposition of unpopular persons as leaders of communities as the major cause of communal crises across the Niger Delta region.
In a chat with our correspondent immediately after the PG ended the monthly executive meeting with members of his cabinet, he pointed out that, communal crises across the Niger Delta region especially in Urhobo and Isoko ethnic nationalities were on the increase because some perceived political heavyweights, who are power-drunk in these communities and also connected to government, want to grab the community leadership to themselves against the wish of the people.
The PG said, “If you watch well in the entire Niger Delta region today, communal crises are on the increase. In most cases, many of these communal crises are as result of imposition of unpopular persons as leaders in our communities. This is exactly what is playing out in this our community too.
“By the grace of God, my tenure as the president-general of the community will elapse on March this year. Therefore, as our constitution demands, we have called a NEC meeting where an Electoral Committee has been constituted to conduct the elections.
“On top of these arrangements, we discovered that, some political heavyweights that are linked to the community in one way or the other want to impose unpopular persons as leaders of this community against the wish of the people. The reason behind this is just to grab the leadership of this community for their personal and selfish interest without considering the general interest of the people.
“This we vehemently stand to stop in the community. We are shouting on top of our voices for government and the world to hear us that our elections should be done free and fair and in a peaceful manner.”
Speaking further on the issue of the community elections, the president-general, Mr. Peter Maison, who is a Justice of Peace, called on the Chairman of Ughelli North LGA, Olorogun Jaro Egbo, the police and other security agents in the local government council to come to their aid to enable them conduct free and fair elections which was already fixed for February 22, 2025 by the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the community held on 22nd December, 2024 at the community town hall with selected leaders within the community and those in the Diaspora in full attendance.
According to the PG, this call to the local government chairman and security agents was timely as there was already fear and tension in the community that, this imposition if not well handled might lead to crisis before or during the elections because the Unenurhie people are being disturbed from exercising their constitutional rights of electing the persons of their choice as their leaders.
