The immediate past governor of Delta state and Delta South senatorial hopeful in the forthcoming 2019 general elections, Mr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, has pleaded with his successor, governor Ifeanyi Okowa to as a matter of importance call to order his Executive Assistant on communication, Mr. Fred Oghenesivbe Latimore, to desist from disparaging and concocting lies against his person.
Reacting to a news report credited to governor Okowa’s Executive Assistant, with the headline “I shall Remain In PDP, Can’t Defect To A Dying Party, APC—Uduaghan”, the former governor emphatically made it clear that he never at any given time spoke with the governor’s aide on his defection.
According to Uduaghan who reacted through his media assistant in Warri, Mr. Monoyo Edon, disclosed that “Uduaghan will speak on his political future soon.”
“Neither Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan nor his media office granted any interview on defection how much, one with the above headline. Maybe Mr. Latimore in his usual element was responding to a rumour on social media. Latimore failed to realize that there is a clear distinction between propaganda and journalism.
“With due respect to the office of the Delta
state governor, one would have expected that its staff, particularly the media arm should be preoccupied with the task of polishing the image of our governor’s administration before the general public and handling feedbacks on his performance so far.
“It therefore becomes worrisome whether the lines between the professional ethics of a government appointee and his individual opinion has blurred to the point that it overlaps. It invariably means, with the Executive Assistant tag, Mr. Latimore writes the mind of the governor and mirrors the body language in the camp of the Governor. Otherwise, he would have been called to order and barred from pitching his principal with his former boss and predecessor.
“We would like to plead with our governor Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa to call his Executive Assistant to order, otherwise we may be forced to respond directly. We also want to reassure the general public, especially Dr. Uduaghan’s supporters that our principal is very much in the senatorial race and will come out with a decision on the direction of travel of his political future after the conclusion of his high level consultations.” he said.
It would be recalled that, Delta state governor, Mr. Ifeanyi Okowa, former governor of the state, Mr. James Ibori and other top echelons of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), within and outside the state had continued to mount pressure on the former governor of the state, Mr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, who has been rumoured to leave the party, not to defect from PDP to the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC).
