Secretary to Delta State Government (SSG), Ovuozourie Macaulay has described the imprisoned former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori as a political icon in the country ahead of the 2015 elections.
Speaking in Asaba, Macaulay stated that it was unfair for anyone to try to tie the embattled Ibori to Delta State political issues as Ibori was a National player in politics.
On the prisoner swap agreement signed with the United Kingdom recently, Macaulay said it was not facilitated simply to give a soft landing to Ibori and begged stakeholders not to play into media hype.
His words: “Ibori’s matter is a national issue. I am not that comfortable to tie him to Delta politics. Ibori is beyond Delta politics. No matter the circumstances, it is unfair for anybody to reduce his person to Delta politics.
“But more seriously, the decision to sign an agreement which will make it possible for Nigerian prisoners in UK to come home to serve their jail terms as well as those in Nigeria to go back to the UK to serve their jail terms is beyond the person of Ibori.
“He just happened to be just one of the very many Nigerians in UK prisons. He is just one of them and because he is a big fish newspapers are using it to sell their papers.”
Secretary to Delta State Government (SSG), Ovuozourie Macaulay has described the imprisoned former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori as a political icon in the country ahead of the 2015 elections.
Speaking in Asaba, Macaulay stated that it was unfair for anyone to try to tie the embattled Ibori to Delta State political issues as Ibori was a National player in politics.
On the prisoner swap agreement signed with the United Kingdom recently, Macaulay said it was not facilitated simply to give a soft landing to Ibori and begged stakeholders not to play into media hype.
His words: “Ibori’s matter is a national issue. I am not that comfortable to tie him to Delta politics. Ibori is beyond Delta politics. No matter the circumstances, it is unfair for anybody to reduce his person to Delta politics.
“But more seriously, the decision to sign an agreement which will make it possible for Nigerian prisoners in UK to come home to serve their jail terms as well as those in Nigeria to go back to the UK to serve their jail terms is beyond the person of Ibori.
“He just happened to be just one of the very many Nigerians in UK prisons. He is just one of them and because he is a big fish newspapers are using it to sell their papers.”
The SSG also called on politicians in the state to shun ethnic division and zoning ahead of the 2015 elections.
“Let us discuss this. In 2007, when (Emmanuel) Uduaghan was first elected as Governor, were you are any forum where it was agreed that power should shift to any area? Can you just tell us who the contestants were in the 2007 election? The answer is they cut across all zones in the state.
“In 2011, what was the character of the election? What was the voting pattern? The answer was that there were about 12 members from other parties in the State Assembly. This shows that no section of this state voted en-bloc for PDP and Governor Uduaghan.”