Group warns Oro politicians “…Vote for only candidates only”

With barely few  days to the gubernatorial and States House of Assembly, a frontline masses-based non-governmental organization has again warned the people of Oron Nation to guard against the temptation of casting their votes for candidates who have no track records of achievements in their political career.

According to the President of the Common Peoples Organization – a socio-political association made up of focused grassroots pressure groups, Comrade Sunday Asukwo Antai, it is only by identifying and voting for candidates who have the interest of the masses at heart that the downtrodden will reap democratic dividends. 

Comrade Antai who was chatting with journalists in Oron disclosed that his organization has already put in place a mechanism to frustrate the selfish ambition of candidates who have no remarkable pedigree  to contest  elections, but any vie for platform to enrich themselves, associates, families and cronies.

Comrade Antai condemned in its entirety the idea of handpicking candidates for polls without adequate recourse to what have been the achievements of such candidates to the people they intend to represent, arguing that the idea of consensus candidature always comes from the electorate and not self-styled political party elders.

He recalled the selfless and community based ideologies of some illustrious Oro sons such as the Late Ikpoto Oro Iyanam Ukwa Iyanam; Chief Nyong Anwana Esin among others, noting with nostalgia that these great men of service-oriented vision and zeal to improve the lots of the masses were largely responsible for the sizable employment opportunities for young school leavers of that time.

Comrade Antai wondered why persons who do not even know their kinsmen well, let alone fraternizing with them should be brought in from Lagos, Overseas, Abuja, Calabar, and Port-Harcourt and the rest of the cities and even Uyo, to come and contest elections to the detriment of the collective will of the electorate.

The Common Peoples Organization then announced in the April 11 polls, the group will not only fail to identify and vote for these who have the interest of the masses at heart with realizable blueprint but also will go a step further to discouraging the masses from giving them victory on a platter of gold.

He shared in the success and victory of Rtd General Mohammadu Buhari as the president-elect of Nigeria and praised Dr. Goodluck  Ebele Jonathan’s sportsman-like disposition in accepting the outcome of the adjudged credible and fair polls conducted by INEC led by Prof. Attahiru Jega.