A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has endorsed the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State, Peter Mbah and Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP) in Lagos State as their preferred candidates in the March 18 governorship and State House of Assembly elections.
HURIWA also said INEC may not survive the tsunami of protests if it wilfully sabotages the electoral process.
In a statement by its national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko yesterday in Abuja, the union also urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure a transparent process.
Onwubiko said Mbah and Rhodes-Vivour have the requisite credibility and formidable credentials to become some of the most phenomenal and high-achieving governors in both Enugu and Lagos States.
On the PDP Enugu State governorship Candidate, he said: “Our study team undertook weeks of investigative search of the PDP’s candidate for governorship 2023 in Enugu State as well as other notable candidates of Labour Party Chijioke Edeoga and APGA Mr. Frank Nweke Junior, and our finding is that he (Peter Mbah) would be a great governor who would not pander to the whims and caprices of some godfathers.
“He is a very successful crude oil mogul who has achieved so much in the private sector on his individual merit and is not bereft of experience in the public sector having served as commissioner of finance.”
He said specifically he is much more respected as a success story in the Private sector.
He said the candidates of Labour Party Edeoga and Nweke of APGA were all members of the PDP and indeed Edeoga only bolted out of PDP when he failed to clinch the party’s ticket and somehow found his way into Labour Party and abandoned PDP which in the last seven years he was a key cabinet member of the current PDP’S administration of Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
He said Nweke Junior became a minister of Information in PDP administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo but now he cross-carpeted into APGA.
“Out of them all, Peter Mbah comes top in the area of credibility and believability.
“The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu, Dr. Peter Mbah as recalled by HURIWA had pledged to ensure the activation of dormant oil fields in the state to boost the economy of the state when elected governor in 2023” he added.
Mbah, while noting and commending the official designation of Enugu State as an oil producing given the oil wells co-owned by Enugu, Kogi, and Anambra States in the Anambra River Basin, as a good development, promised to bring in foreign investors to fast-track the exploitation of other oil and gas fields solely owned by the state”.
“HURIWA recalled that Peter Mbah spoke during town hall meetings attended by community, political, and religious leaders as well as youth and women groups, labour and professional bodies at Idaw River Layout and Eke Otu, Amechi-Uwani, headquarters of Enugu South East and Enugu South Central Development Centres, respectively, in Enugu South Local Government Area (LGA) of the state
“Apart from the OPL 916, which is co-owned, Enugu State has three other oil fields, including OPL 905, OPL 907, and OPL 914. We have the data of the oil deposits in these fields and we would begin to generate revenues from them. We equally have a lot of other mineral resources such as limestone, and coal, among others, and we must optimise them for the development of our state”
