On resource control we stand

We of the Southern Peoples Congress note with dismay, the resurgence of a campaign of calumny against the struggle for resource control by Senator Fred Brume and his supporters in recent press interviews in which they argued that the struggle for the control of our God-given resources being championed by the leading light of the struggle, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, Governor of Delta State and ably supported by governors of the South-South geo-political zone amounts to diversion and that it would not be beneficial to the people of the Niger Delta.

The authors of these publications are recycled personalities who really should have no claim to leadership and appears to have lost touch with the electorate. They remind us of paid pipers who must play according to higher powers who had assumed the power unjustly and voraciously appropriating our resources while we wallow in abject poverty, environment degradation and underdevelopment.

The mandate given to Senator Fred Brume by the people of the Delta Central Senatorial district and indeed the South-South Zone is for effective representation and articulation of the interest of the electorate. If the electorate had firmly resolved that resource control is the topical issue that will redefine whether Nigeria is a federation of co-equal units or an ancient empire where emperor determines what to covet and what to leave for his vassals by the rule of the thumb rather than by the constitution, then the position of the distinguished senator and his followers who play the tune that is pleasing to the higher powers is regrettable. Such persons no longer deserve to be the custodian of our mandate.

We reject with all vehemence statements credited to the Senator in the Vanguard Newspaper of June 18, 2001. We would like to place on record that he must turn a new leaf by listening to the yearnings of his people or we may be left with no option than to put a machinery in place that will lead to his recall from the National Assembly.

While congratulating Ms. Temi Harriman and all those who voted for truth and posterity, we admonish all to be wary of selling their birthright for a mess of porridge. History, the ultimate judge, is watching.

S.G.O Kohwo and

Jaro Egbo,

Warri, Delta State.