By Godwin Oghre

Mosogar—The Urhobo nation, yesterday, ratified the endorsement of Chief Great Ogboru of Labour Party, which its umbrella body, Urhoobo Progress Union, UPU, on Sunday, made on its behalf, as its sole candidate in the February 28 governorship election in the state.

The ratification of Chief Ogboru’s sole candidacy at the country home of UPU President-General, Chief Joseph Omene, had in attendance, the 24 Presidents- General of all the 24 kingdoms of Urhoboland, the elders of the Urhobo nation, representatives of Urhobo women, and the representatives of the youths (Ighele) wing.

Chief Omene, who addressed newsmen after the ratification, said: “The Uvwiamuge Declaration, a common agreement of the Urhobo which states that an Urhobo man must be the next governor of the state, is sacrosanct and a task that must be fulfilled. We call on all previous and present governorship contenders of Urhobo extraction in the state to sheathe their swords and bury their differences and work in tandem with Great Ogboru, for the benefit of the Urhobo nation in the election.”

The choice of Ogboru was earlier arrived at after UPU consulted with stakeholders in the 24 kingdoms of Urhoboland.

Omene said: “The kings, the elders, the women, the youths and the Presidents Generals had, a month ago, endorsed Ogboru in their various meetings and they forwarded his name to UPU executive, as their consensus candidate. The choice awaited UPU’s ratification. UPU can only do that at a general executive meeting   which is statutorily slated for every first Sunday of the month. So, we had our meeting on Sunday. Fourteen out of the 15 members of the executive were physically present. The fifteenth person who was absent communicated with us on phone each time he was called to say his view on the subjects under debate and vote.

“There were only two issues for debate at the meeting, which were: One, should the Urhobo endorse their governorship candidate before or after the presidential election? Two, who, between Ogboru and O’tega Emerhor should step down for the other since the Urhobo will not present two candidates for the election? We did not arrive at a common agreement on the two issues, so we put them to vote. In the first voting, 10 voted in support of endorsing a candidate before the presidential election, while five voted against. The majority votes then won.

“The second voting on who between Ogboru and Emerhor should step down for the other and who will be the Urhobo consensus candidate then followed. Eight voted in favour of Ogboru, to be Urhobo candidte. One voted in favour of Emerhor, one abstained but remained on his seat while five abstained as well as left their seats, walking out on the meeting. Again, the majority votes won. The exco then ratified Ogboru’s candidacy as the consensus candidate of Urhobo nation.”