2023: Peter Obi is not a greenhorn, rights activist discloses

President of the One Love Foundation, a NGO, and rights activist, Chief Patrick Osagie Eholor, has lambast those who describe the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) for the 2023 polls, Peter Obi, as inexperienced.

He asserted that this claim is far from the truth as Peter Obi has no landmark achievements worthy of mention.

“Those who are experienced put us in this situation. They were ex-Generals in the Army before becoming President. Let us say that we don’t need structure, we don’t need any of those experienced people any more to continue suffering with a man who is very transparent.

“Doyin Okupe was on TV recently, he brought a book written by Professor Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is very experienced and is representing us world wide today. There is a page in the book dedicated to Governor Peter Obi. She disclosed that Peter Obi was the only governor in his era who advocated that some money need to be saved for the raining day.

“He was the only governor who left $150million for his successor. This was a man who 25 years ago was heading a company in London worth about £26 million.”

On the protest against the failed portion of East-West Road along Sapele Road, Benin, Eholor stressed, “we have to pay attention to what’s relevant. For a while now our attention has been diverted to the problem of insecurity. We have not been discussing about failure of infrastructure.

“There is inflation in the country. President Buhari has destroyed our economy. Sapele Road (where the failed portion is) is very important in our economy because it leads to other parts of the Niger Delta region. Babatunde Fashola(Minister of Works and Housing) is a man that has failed abysmally.”

Going further, he stated: “I woke up one day and said that there would be no movement on that failed portion of the road until it is repaired. I was not doing that because I wanted to usurp power to myself. I was doing it for public interest. The operatives of the Directorate of State Services(DSS) came to my house, so also the Police. They said that ‘the people have suffered enough. We have heard you.’

“I sent a shout out to the Presidency. As usual they don’t recognise these things. Fashola don’t travel along that road. He uses helicopter. It is we, the people, that suffer it. If the roads are not motorable, the cars are bad, you put pressure on the drivers. You end up in Mechanics’ Workshops. If they end up like that whatever they spend they push it back to us and the market women.

“That is why the commodities we have in the market are so expensive. They’re unaffordable. So, we must make sure we remain in Sapele Road(protest) until Fashola makes it possible Buhari comes here to make sure our road is motorable, it is passable. And no matter what Governor Godwin Obaseki would do to deceive us they cannot use any palliative measures that will be accepted any more.”