BETRAYAL! ‘Orubebe is an Ingrate whom I brought into National Limelight’-Edwin Clark *Confesses: “Delta State Leaders, Stakeholders Forum contributed money for his transport fares to appear before Senate Screening for his present Ministerial Office” * Says: “Late President Umaru Yar’Adua warned me never to back Orubebe” *Explains: “He begged me to become Special Adviser in ex-Gov James Ibori’s govt.” * Concerned Nigerian Youth Forum Demands: “He must make unreserved apology publicly to papa Edwin Kiagbodo Clark and further call his surrogates to order”

BY THOMPSON BELLO/POLITICAL DEPUTY EDITOR, SOUTH-SOUTH NIGERIA

 OBVIOUSLY, Godsday Orubebe, Honorable Minister of Niger Delta is walking the tight-rope and ‘acting dishonorably’ if the information sent to us by electronic mail from Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, Nigeria’s foremost statesman and Ijaw National Leader is to be taken seriously. The past of Orubebe have seemingly come face-to-face starring him in the eyes as Concerned Nigerian Youth Forum, a non-governmental political pressure group acting on the ‘blessings of Clark’ have gone down memory lane to explain how Orubebe allegedly ‘pleaded’ on several occasions with Clark when James Ibori was then governor of Delta State to be made a Special Adviser.

Late Yar’Adua gave Clark warning to drop support for Orubebe

 Naija Standard can tell you that if Nigeria’s former president, Musa Yar’Adua were to be alive, he probably would have come down hard now on Clark for ‘cleaning-up’ Orubebe and bringing him to the nation’s national limelight.

The economy got so bad and biting to Orubebe that he could not allegedly pay his air fare to Abuja to attend the Senate screening of his ministerial position, until Delta leaders and stakeholders had to pay his transport fares, a fact that was confirmed by Concerned Nigerian Youth Forum (CNYF)

Spokesman for CNYF said “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.

“We, the associates of Chief E.K Clark, have 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.

Yar’Adua Warned

The statement read: “Chief E.K Clark brought Orubebe 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.

“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.  Perfidy 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.

How Ibori declined pleas from Orubebe to be made Special Adviser

The letter further reads: “Let us inform those misled benefactors who attacked Chief. E.K. Clark that Godsday Orubebe has challenges from his political antecedents.  Perfidy 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.

“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 overemphasized. 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.”