UPU cautions against politically motivated killings in Urhobo land

A group, Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), has called on politicians and other stakeholders’ in Urhobo land, Delta State, to shun violence and killings as 2023 general election is approaching, describing as worrisome the rate at which alleged politically motivated killings was taking place in the area. 

President- General of the group, Olorogun Moses Taiga, gave this counsel on Monday in a statement made available to newsmen, as he made references to the three killings; two last year and one this year of a young politician who was killed on his way to Asaba in respect of the local government polls in 2020. 

UPU President- General also cited the case of another politician that was killed in Ughelli South last year, even as he lamented that in the last few days, another young politician was brazenly hacked down in Sapele.

“As we get closer to another round of elections, the UPU calls on all Urhobo politicians to play their politics without killings, violence and bitterness. Do not shed the blood of any Urhobo son or daughter to achieve your political ambition. Power belongs to God and no one gets to a position without the knowledge of God,” he pleaded.

According to Taiga, investigations of the aforementioned killings showed that they were politically motivated, just as he said UPU did not presume so.

“But local government politicking is on and the 2023 elections politicking is already on, though the elections are still two years away. Are these deaths coincidences? The UPU does not know, but they are worrisome and ominous,” he lamented. 

“Urhobo politics and elections have always been intense, but killing of political opponents is not part of our political life,” he said.

UPU President- General, therefore, urged the people of Urhobo nation and Delta State in general to aspire for public office with the desire to serve, saying that anybody desiring to serve needed not eliminate political opponents to get the position, adding: “You do not kill because you want to serve.”

“Anybody desiring to serve does not need to eliminate political opponents to get the position. You do not kill because you want to serve. A call to public service is a call to restore and uplift life, not a call to take life,” Taiga said.

“While we await the police to unravel the perpetrators of these killings, the UPU says enough of these killings. The Urhobos are peace-loving people. Nobody should turn Urhobo land into a river of blood,” he reiterated.

 

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