Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, has come under fire over disparaging statements about elder statesman, Chief E.K. Clark, who is widely regarded as the leader of the region.

Chief Clark’s associates under the umbrella of Concerned Nigerian Youth Forum (CNYF) said this afternoon that they “read with great consternation, the unguarded vituperations credited to Elder Godsday Orubebe, and his agents against elder statesman, Chief E.K Clark, published in some national dailies.”

Chief Clark, a former Senator and one-time Minister of Information, had incurred Orubebe’s anger by opposing his bid to become the governor of Delta State in 2015 and upbraiding him for prematurely promoting the President’s presumed re-election interest despite clear directives against such a campaign.

CNYF in a statement signed by its Secretary General, John Pepple, accused Orubebe of being an ingrate, saying that “Chief E.K Clark brought him to National Political limelight, even against the express objection of His Excellency, the late President Shehu Umaru Yar’Adua, and the erstwhile Governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori.”

Continuing, the group said in the statement issued in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, and made available to News Express:

“Elder Godsday Orubebe fired the first shot which amounts to an abomination to tradition and custom, a trifle too embarrassing and apposite, to the express directive to all public officers, never to mix up extant constitutional obligations of public office, with the delusions of grandeur, about 2015.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the elder statesman and technocrat, Chief E.K Clark, was merely reminding Mr. Minister of the morality of the presidential directive.

“Let us inform those misled benefactors who attacked Chief. E.K. Clark that Godsday Orubebe has challenges from his political antecedents. Just because he wanted to be Special Adviser under James Ibori, Orubebe betrayed the whole of ANPP in Delta State and decamped to PDP for his own selfish and personal intent.

“We are dismayed that Elder Godsday Orubebe contemplated and even sponsored attacks in newspapers on Chief E.K Clark, a highly respected leader and 86 years old statesman for reasons we are so far unable to fathom. What a naked dance of Elder Orubebe but alas! Ingratitude is a despicable sin. Shakespeare personified it as a ‘marble-hearted fiend.’

“It is with nostalgia and melancholy that we remember how members of the Delta State Leaders and Stakeholders Forum contributed money for transport so that Elder Godsday Orubebe could attend his Senate his screening ceremony prior to his confirmation by the Senate as Honourable Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Therefore, we advise the Honourable Minister to concentrate on his ministerial work to uplift the country and the Niger Delta in particular which our people have so much expectation for.

We therefore wish to advise Elder Godsday Orubebe, his political associates and followers to pursue their political ambition with decorum, peacefully and without acrimony; and desist from any further attacks on the person of Chief E. K. Clark so as not to cause crises and dissentions in the Ijaw Nation.

“Chief Clark’s leadership role in the resolution of the Niger Delta crisis cannot be overemphasised. He has led his Ijaw people from the six coastal states to all peace negotiations convened on the conflict and continues to seek succor and relief for his oppressed tribe who unanimously acknowledge him as Ijaw National Leader.

“We seize this opportunity to once again urge all political office holders particularly at the national level to concentrate on their jobs and bring democracy dividends to the people. We urge Elder Godsday Orubebe to use the same national press to immediately render unreserved apology to the revered papa Edwin Kiagbodo Clark and further call his surrogates to order. This should be done without pre-conditions demanded on the elder statesman.”

•Photos shows Orubebe.

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