By Onozure Dania

The Chief Joe Omene leadership of the Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, the Urhobo apex ruling socio-cultural body, at home and in diaspora, has said that it remains the authentic leader of the body and not  Chief Moses Taiga, who is being erroneously addressed as President-General of UPU worldwide.

Omene in a statement, said: “For the sake of emphasis, I am the current legitimate President-General of UPU, known by the Urhobo nation and not Chief Taiga.

“The UPU organised its election in the first week of December 2016, in accordance with its constitution. The election, which produced me, Omene, as President-General, had over 4/5 of the over 60 branches of the UPU worldwide in attendance, participating.

“Up till this moment,  the authenticity of that election has not been challenged by any person or group of people in any court of law. Some people, who contested against me in the election but failed, including Chief Taiga, went to conduct another so-called election on 2/1/2017 without any of the branches of UPU worldwide participating.

“The so-called election was claimed to have been conducted by non-existing Board of Trustees. According to the organisers, the Board of Trustees was made up of nine people out of whom six, including the chairman, were already dead.

“That so-called election that purportedly produced Taiga has been challenged in suit filed at a Federal High Court, sitting in Warri, Delta State, in suit number FHC/WR/CS/10/2017, since February this year and up till today, Taiga and other defendants have not been able to file their defence, five months after.

“Despite clear and unambiguous warning from UPU, the Youths Wing, the Women Wing and other well-meaning Nigerians to Taiga to stop parading himself as the President-General of UPU, saying they would no longer tolerate his falsehood and to keep a safe distance from the offices of UPU in Uvwiamuge and Okere Road in Warri, in the interest of peace, until the court case is decided,  he has kept parading himself as UPU President-General, even without regard to a court order against that.”

“We (Urhobos) are known for our respect for the judiciary and the rule of law but Taiga is not Urhobo man he has chosen to do otherwise. You will agree with me that no ethnic nationality in the Nigeria is ruled by a non-member of that ethnic group. The fact that an Urhobo man was born in Lagos will not avail him the opportunity to preside over the affairs of Afenifere.

“The Urhobo are a patrilineal society like many other ethnic societies in Nigeria which defines the origin and status o any person claiming to be an Urhobo man. Chief Taiga is one of the beneficiaries of the hospitality of the Urhobo nation and in his case at Okpere. He has not been able to respond to an authoritative source, a book titled, “Olomu and Development of Urhobo Land,  edited by renown Scholars, Prof. Peter Eke, Onoawarie Edevbie and Peter Father Taiga is from Kiagbodo, the Ijaw speaking area of Niger Delta.

“The book itself further quoted him(Chief Moses Taiga) as the primary source of the information regarding his origin. So far he has failed to deny this authority about his origin but he rather chooses to be persistently abusing the hospitality which the Urhobo people had for him at Okpare.

“In line with the forgoing, I urge you to refrain from further naming, calling and addressing of Chief Taiga as the President General of UPU until the court case against him decided. For now, it is a contempt of the court for you to continue doing so. The status-quo as ordered by the court is that I (Chief Omene) remain as the President General of UPU, except the court decides otherwise and you shall know the final decision of the court.”