By Uche Amunike
The Mayor of Urhoboland, Eshanekpe Israel, also known as Akpodoro, has attested that just like him, the entire sons and daughters of Urhobo are solidly in support of Ministerial nominee, Honourable Stella Okotete’s screening as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, while describing her as astute and impeccable in character, therefore, worthy to be given the honor.
Speaking, through a statement signed and released by the former warlord, Tuesday, in Abuja, Akpodoro condemned what he described as envy-driven agitation by a ‘fraction’ of the Delta State Chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), reiterating that Stella Okotete’s screening and nomination was well deserved as she was greatly qualified to represent the oil-rich state in the present administration, having paid her dues in the state and written her name in gold in previous national assignments she had been entrusted with in the past. He further described Okotete, who is the Managing Director of NEXIM Bank, as someone who was not only passionate, but also addicted to serving President Bola Tinubu and the APC.
He further noted that nobody was more APC in Delta State than Stella Okotete because she was young and could hold her own anywhere in the world, without letting anything hinder her. He lauded President Bola Tinubu for choosing a youthful and vibrant lady like Okotete in his cabinet adding that those attacking her were just doing so out of vanity.
The mayor further made a plea to Senate President Godswill Akpabio, that during Stella Okotete’s screening, she should possibly be asked to bow and go in honor of the Nigerian youths whom she represents.
According to the mayor, who is the founder of the Urhobo Youth Forum for Change (UYFC), Stella has given her best in politics, especially in the emergence of President Bola Tinubu, where she was involved deeply during the electioneering campaigns and also delivered her polling units victoriously to the APC during the February 25thpresidential election. He wondered why those who could not deliver their units to the Presidential candidate back then were now showing anger, with a sense of entitlement for Ministerial nominations.
In the statement, he hoped that Senator Akpabio would apply his accurate sense of judgment to note the jealous nature of those behind the agitation of Stella Okotete. According to him, while the county was mobilizing voters at the grassroots for a candidate, most of her attackers today were playing hide and seek games with the fortune of their presidential candidate and making their districts vulnerable for opposition elements to win.
His words: ‘I call on our distinguished President of the Nigerian Senate to screen Okotete as the best ministerial nominee from Delta State. President Tinubu is a talent hunter who must seen through the capacity, loyalty and competence of this Urhobo woman and on that account she was nominated in lieu of vote traders, wheelers and dealers in treachery and backstabbing.’
‘Those who are attacking Okotete are enemies of Urhobo nation who have obviously lost in the game of real politik and have resorted to pettiness and frivolities. Tell us how many votes they garnered for our President at the polls. Signatories to that malicious and bellyache petitions to the Senate President should show us their track records in grassroot politics other than grandstanding to take positions after loyal party members have delivered the victory to the president at the polls.’
‘Those opposing forces to Okotete should bury their heads in shame, having failed their people woefully and with a history of leaders-do-nothing in their respective domains. Now they want to reap where they didn’t sow with annoying sense of entitlement as if they are more qualified than a young woman who have managed with clinical efficiency a reputable financial institution of world standard like the NEXIM Bank to a greater height. Who is more qualified than a woman who journeyed through the length and breadth of our nation during the campaigns for the emergence of APC and our then presidential candidate while her critics were in the trenches of perfidy,’ the Mayor stated.
