EKPEYE YOUTHS INSIST ON RETAINING RIVERS WEST SENATORIAL SEAT

Youths of Ekpeye Ethnic Nationality under the umbrella of Ekpeye Youth Congress (EYC) worldwide say they have uncovered plot by certain political interests in the state to deny Ekpeye people their right to retain the Rivers West Senatorial District seat in the National Assembly come 2019.
In a statement issued at Ahoada after an emergency meeting of the Central Executive Council, the President General of Ekpeye Youth Congress Comrade Ogboka Umeda said information available to the youth body indicates that some certain political interests in Rivers state and Rivers West Senatorial District in particular have perfected plans to impose candidates from other tribes as Senator representing Rivers West Senatorial District in the National Assembly as against the current arrangement which he said remains the turn of the Ekpeye people.

Comrade Ogboka Umeda who noted that "despite the fact that Ekpeye is the largest ethnic group in Rivers West Senatorial District, certain powerful interests in the state have overtime consistently denied Ekpeye the opportunity to produce the Senator for the district". The EYC President General noted that "this long marginalization and oppression was only recently addressed in 2015 when an Ekpeye son in the person of Senator Osinakachukwu Ideozu was elected under the platform of the PDP" which according to him "Distinguished Senator Ideozu has just spent few years due to the nullification of the elections by the tribunal and subsequent rerun which saw Senator Ideozu returning to the senate after over a year had been wasted between the nullification and the rerun which in actual terms left him with barely three years at the senate.

Comrade Umeda maintained that while other tribes like the Ogba with Senators F.J Ellah, Victor Odili and Wilson Ake together occupied the seat for about 12 years, the Kalabaris with Senator Denton West and Senator Martins Yellowe occupied the seat for not less than 12 years also, emphasizing that now that it is the turn of Ekpeye, they must be allowed to complete their 8 years tenure irrespective of the party.
He noted that the recent defection of Senator Ideozu from PDP to APC notwithstanding, both the APC and the PDP must choose their candidates for the 2019 elections from Ekpeye as anything short of that will be resisted by the people.

He used the opportunity to warn sons and daughters of Ekpeye who have offered themselves as willing tools to be used by anti Ekpeye forces to continue to deny Ekpeye their right and cause confusion amongst the people to desist forthwith as doing so will attract the wrath of the Ekpeye people, for gone are the days when outsiders use Ekpeye people to cause disaffection amongst the themselves to achieve their selfish interest.

The President General of Ekpeye Youth, the umbrella body of the entire Ekpeye youths, Comrade Ogboka Umeda called on political parties who seek the support of Ekpeye people to concede to Ekpeye their right to retain the senate in 2019 to fully complete their tenure.