By Jimitota Onoyume

PORT HARCOURT—Rivers Elders and Leaders Council, RELEC, has called on Rivers people to vote for President Goodluck Jonathan in the presidential election. Chairman of the body and former Director, State Security Service, Chief Albert Horsfall, who addressed newsmen in Port Harcourt at the end of a meeting of the body, said that as elders, they had resolved to call on all indigenes of the state to vote for Jonathan, adding that the call was in line with the agitation of the region for a South-South president.

He said: “We must not be deceived to vote against the Niger Delta project. We must take it that we are voting for the objectives which prompted our people to fight for their rights in this great country.

“We must, therefore, vote for Jonathan, the only Niger Delta presidential candidate in the forthcoming elections in order to sustain the aspirations of our forefathers. We are, therefore, not voting for Goodluck Jonathan per se; we are voting to sustain and maintain our deserved right as a responsible political, economic, cultural people among other groups within the comity of Nigerian ethnic nationalities.

“Therefore, Rivers people, go to the polls, vote for Jonathan and if you ask yourself why you must vote for him, say it is because voting for Jonathan means voting to sustain the century-old Niger Delta peoples’ struggle and the dividends that have accrued from it.”