BY BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE

The Delta State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Chike Ogeah recently responded to issues arising from the recent killing of the erstwhile gubernatorial candidate of the Citizens Peoples Party, CPP in the State, Chief Ogbe Onokpite. Excerpts:

What is the reaction of the Governor and his government to the death of Chief Onokpite?

I think, and that is part of the reason I am here, and I advised my governor- I said what I think your duty is at this time is to leave an enabling environment for full and free investigation into this matter to be conducted.

You as a government, you as a governor cannot have a side because you don’t know and anything you say now… Maybe you were somewhere in Lagos or Abuja at a meeting or in Government House in Asaba, when this thing was going on in Udu. Anything you say now, since you are not the omnipotent and omnipresent, must be hearsay.

Late Chief Onokpite

You must be told by someone, maybe by some security aide or even this same police we are talking about.

To my mind, I think it may be premature at this time to say what is the position of Delta State. Or rather, I will say the position of Delta State is that we are waiting eagerly for this investigation to be conducted and concluded, then the government may be able to say something.

But for now, the government condemns totally any form of unlawful killing of its citizen anywhere in Delta State or indeed anywhere in Nigeria because really the duty of government is to protect the life and citizens of the people.

Is there any relationship between the governor and the deceased to the extent that some would link the government to this killing? Was there a threat from him?

Well! My guess is as good as yours in that, and we can only stick to the information we have. This guy, a promising young man, was not in any way a threat to the government of the day.

So, except there is something else we all on this table do not know..and that is why we are beginning to feel that the kind of environment that we have in Delta State is becoming rather unjust because if I leave you guys here now and I go home, and I sleep – God forbid- and I don’t wake up tomorrow, you will say it is the opposition that killed me; they killed me through probably a flying saucer or other means. That is bad. It has become bad in Delta State and that is what we are fighting against. We are all brothers and sisters in that state.

Like I said, there is time for everything. They still have two more levels to go in their litigation.

They have come this far! I must even say that to a large extent I must commend the major opposition party in Delta, which is the DPP in terms of following the rule of law and making sure that they have done everything they have done through the courts. So, if we have gone this far, that is why it becomes a bit of a problem and you begin to wonder where this is coming from when this kind of thing is being done. That is the truth!

The truth is that I cannot tell you this is the nexus, other than, this man was one of the 28 gubernatorial candidates we had in Delta during that election.

And as far as I know, I don’t know whether my governor knows him personally. That is the truth!

So, like they say in law “He who avers must prove”.

Maybe we will also come up with an action of our own because if you look at it- because a man is governor does not mean that anything, especially when you start talking of unlawful killing by the police, must be hanged on his head.

How do you feel when you ear that the government was responsible for this murder?

The truth is that we are surprised, we are shocked, we see no basis for this. We think it is absolutely baseless. We refute it in totality that the government cannot.

Even if the governor or government of Delta State feels uncomfortable with anybody I don’t think getting the Nigerian Police to eliminate the person is the smartest way any governor or government that has all the resources to do things should do it. I believe the Nigeria police actually have questions to answer in this matter.