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Occupy Warri
Protests:Uduaghan
Threatens Delta Civil Liberty Campaigners
With Prosecution For Treason
Newsdiaryonline
Thur Nov 3,2011
Uduaghan
In a turn of events, the embattled Governor of Delta State let
out his frustrations with civil liberty campaigners in the State
at a public meeting.
Following the ‘Occupy Warri’ demonstration in Warri,
Delta State; Uduaghan asked to meet with the organizers of the
protest to discuss their concerns and demands.
The meeting took place on Monday 31st October 2011 at
3.00pm held at Delta State Government House Annex, Warri.
To the shock of attendees, Uduaghan immediately proceeded
to accuse the representatives of the protesters as member of
Liberate- Delta People’s Movement; a civil liberties group on
Facebook whose activities Uduaghan labeled as ‘TREASONABLE
FELONY’.
Liberate – Delta People’s Movement, a group representing more
than 10,600 citizens of the State, have been criticizing
Uduaghan, condemning the manner of his election and the numerous
abandoned projects in the State such as
Ughelli – Asaba Road Dualisation; Warri Industrial Park;
Independent Power Project, Ogharafe; ICT Park Asaba and Asaba
Central Hospital.
Significant attention has also been given to the anomalies
surrounding INEC’s declaration of Uduaghan as Governor at the
Gubernatorial Elections as many of the members personally
witnessed ballot box snatching, electoral violence and numerous
places where elections simply did not take place. They have
prayed the election tribunal sitting in Asaba to guarantee the
rule of law, justice and restoration of the people’s mandate.
Members of the Uduaghan administration are also on the
Forum and have been afforded the opportunity to dialogue with
citizens of the State on all those matters.
At the meeting of the 31st of October Uduaghan
also confirmed that he personally reads all of the posts on the
Forum on a regular basis but has not personally contributed to
the debates on the Forum.
Uduaghan is reported to have gone on to say that he knew
categorically that Liberate – Delta People’s Movement was behind
the bad press and distractions of his administration. In an
astonishing turn, he proceeded to name individuals whom he
alleged were the leaders of Liberate – Delta People’s Movement,
mentioning STEPHEN DIESERUVWE, CADRE DRAKE AND JUDE KAKPOVBIA.
He said that these individuals live outside Nigeria and
that he did not know how they claim to know what happens in his
administration. Uduaghan went further to state that Liberate-
Delta People’s Movement is planning to unseat him through
unconstitutional means, which in his words, amounted to
‘treasonable felony’. Uduaghan then boasted that it will be
impossible for anyone to unseat him, and that those who have
been attempting to unseat via the courts have not succeeded, and
would not succeed, unless the court is not in Delta State.
Members of Liberate have been reacting to the reported comments
with astonishment and those named are said to be consulting
their legal adviser about potential action in relation to
defamation of character.
The spokesman for the Group, Mr. Cadre Drake said that ‘
-The comments accredited to the Governor amount to threats and
intimidation and can only be seen as an undemocratic attempt
to
avoid dialogue with the citizenry.
It is sad that the Uduaghan Administration is making
numerous attempts to stifle freedom of speech and desecrate the
principal of citizen engagement as a hallmark of democracy and
good governance.
The citizens have a right to play a role in how they are
governed, this is sadly missing in the Nigerian democracy and
Liberate was established to give Deltans this opportunity; to
call it treason is
very sad indeed’
Uduaghan’s utterances came at a time when members of Liberate
have been facing constant threats and intimidation from members
of the Uduaghan administration; as recently 26th of
October
2011, on Facebook,
an avatar (fake profile)
called Paul Cassidy,
known to be used by Uduaghan employees posted this:
‘And there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth for members of
the UK-based terrorist organisation, "Liberate - Delta State
Movement". The lead terrorists are: Stephen Dieseruvwe, Jude
Kakpovbia, Orode Oyiki, Rex Ekiugbo Anighoro and Judith Akiri.
What is treason? Treason is plotting to overthrow a sitting
government by unconstitutional means. Beware! You are
warned!!!!!!’.
This is just an example of the numerous threats that have been
directed at members of Liberate and
the similarities
to Uduaghan’s comments are clear.
Liberate has put out a statement asking its members to
remain cautious and vigilant but steadfast in addressing the
issue of the governance of the State and promoting
accountability, transparency and progress.
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