The Itsekiri Leaders of Thought (ILT) has dissociated itself from an alleged plan by the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) to endorse the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as the sole candidate for the Niger Delta.
The Itsekiri elders and leaders made this known in a statement issued January 30 and signed by the chairman of the group, Chief Edward Ekpoko, on behalf of ILoT.
He disclosed that the Itsekiri nation would not be part of the “self-styled” regional and ethnic leaders parading themselves as Southern, Northern and Middle Belt Leaders of which PANDEF is also a member.
ILoT alleged that the self-styled regional group has scheduled a meeting for Sunday during which Mr Abubakar will be adopted as a sole candidate.
The Itsekiri group, therefore, dissociated itself and the Itsekiri nation from the scheduled forum “under various aegis of which the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) is one.
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According to Ekpoko, the Itsekiri nation has yet to decide on whom to pitch its tent as regards the two major presidential candidates, saying the PANDEF meeting was an all Ijaw affair.
“PANDEF, which arrogates to itself to be a Pan Niger Delta body, does not and cannot represent and speak for the Itsekiri people.
“It cannot even claim to represent the interests of the entire Ijaw nation much more of other ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta.
“PANDEF agenda is purely Ijaw and does not approximate with Itsekiris.
“The Itsekiri Leaders of Thought and indeed the Itsekiri Nation has not decided on any of the presidential or governorship candidates and will, in few days, unveil its position on the candidates,” the statement further disclosed.
PANDEF, it will be recalled, sprang up in 2016, in the heat of the Niger Delta Avengers’ crisis.
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