By Emma Amaize
WARRI—MR Ebikeme Clark, son of former Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark, and House of Representatives aspirant in Delta State, yesterday, explained the uneasy relationship between his father and Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of the state, saying that the problem was because the Governor did not carry everybody along.

Mr. Clark, who just collected his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, nomination form for the Burutu Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives,  stated this when he visited Vanguard Office in Warri, Yesterday.

According to him, “I have been in very close contact with my dad and I am very aware of what the Governor is doing in the state. From what I got from my dad, he has nothing against the Governor as a person at all.”

“The Governor is doing his best, this is election time and if the Governor comes back second term and I am there,  I will work with him, but  we don’t know who is going to be the Governor of the state and we don’t have anything against the Governor of the state.”

He explained that the opposition against Dr. Uduaghan by the Delta Elders, Leaders and Stakeholders Forum, led by his father was not because he (Uduaghan) is a cousin or brother to the former Governor, Chief James Ibori, but, that there was no level-playing field for other aspirants in the PDP governorship primaries of 2006 that produced him.

He said that  a lot of people saw the 2006 PDP governorship congress that was won by Governor Uduaghan as something that was manipulated by his predecessor, Chief Ibori to put him in power at all cost,  adding that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,  also corroborated the claim, but failed  to annul it.

His words, “Naturally, if not for the way they put it, you expect me to be with my dad, a lot of people are there on his side but I think they (PDP) need to have one family, this factional thing ought not to be there if the people on the other side are listening, they should carry everybody along.

Some mistakes were done by the past administration, inherited by this one (Uduaghan government), we were thinking the new administration will say okay, let us do things better than the last time, let us work together, it is a matter of working together”.

“Well, for the people on the other side (Clark’s group) , the main problem is that they have not been carried along over the years and it takes everybody as one family to develop the state, so they want their input to be felt, they want to be part of the system”, he said”, he added.

On his wish for for the party in the state before the 2011 election, he said, “What I pray for is a situation where there will be a level playing field in this next primaries so that we don’t have that kind of tinted coloration of the last primaries so that any candidate that comes out of my party, PDP, everybody will rally around that person, it could be the incumbent governor, it could be any other person”.

“I say this sop that that when we have election this time, there will not be rancour of saying this person is imposed, this person is this person’s cousin, those things won’t arise, and they won’t be any litigation  you see, we still have chance now, it is not too late, let us harmonise, let us put things in proper perspective so that when anybody emerges, it could be anybody, it could be the present governor, there is nothing wrong with the governor, he has equal rights like any other person.

“Normally, if you have done a first term, you like to have a second term, most people do that, so the prayer is this, let us have a free and fair primaries so that we have credible people from that contest”, he said.