What did your fathers contribute to Rivers State - Tele Ikuru asks APC members

The attention of His Excellency, the Deputy Governor, Engr Tele Ikuru has been drawn to a recent publication authored by Chief Ibiamu Davies Ikanya, the State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Rivers State, through his spokesman, Chief Eze Chukuemeka Eze.

This reaction would not have been necessary but for the avalanche of tantrums, half-truths and outright lies poured on his person and the respected office of Deputy Governor, which by the grace of God he holds in trust for the good people of Rivers State.

Reading through the said piece, one would have treated it as a piece of journalistic garbage and one of the well known idle political gossips by somebody who has led his party to an abysmal failure at the polls due largely to dishonest financial conduct, and after several boasts of being the Omni science, Omni potent, and Omni present, and the alpha and omega of Rivers State politics.

Three issues have warranted this response, the first being that he is interested in becoming the new Secretary to the State Government, the second describing him as somebody HE. Rt. Hon. Rotimi Chubuike Amaechi picked from the gutter, and thirdly, referring to him as Judas.

Firstly, Let it be known without equivocation, that he (Engr. Ikuru) has no intention, desire or ambition to be Secretary to the State Government, having, by the grace of God, been a Deputy Governor. It is hoped, that he is not being associated with the botched, truncated and unrealizable ambition of Rivers APC at the Federal level.

Secondly, in the press statement, Chief Ikanya said that he was picked from the gutter. I wish to state that Engr. Tele Ikuru is a Prince and free born of Ikuru Town, the same village where Ikanya’s progenitors wandered to and were offered shelter and food by the benevolent King Ikuru.

His father is late Elder Renner Aaron Ikuru. He studied Agriculture (Fisheries Option) in St. Francis Xavier University in Canada and on return to Nigeria had a meritorious service in the State Ministry of Agriculture, from where, as a Rivers Man and later as Chairman of Andoni Progressive Union, he contributed financially and otherwise to the founding of Rivers State alongside other founding fathers like late Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye, etc.  The Late Elder Renner Ikuru spearheaded the struggle for the relocation of Andoni People from the then South Eastern State to Rivers State in 1976. Chief Ikanya and his cohorts are hereby challenged to state what contributions their fathers brought to Rivers State

Engr. Tele Ikuru is a trained, certified and chartered engineer by profession (not on scholarship). He has at various times worked in Michelin Nigeria Limited, Shiroro Hydro Electric Power Station, Oil and Industrial Services, UNIPAD Construction Company Limited, Simag Construction Company, Shell Petroleum Development Company, etc.

At the time of his appointment as Honorable Commissioner for Agriculture by His Excellency, Dr. Peter Odili in 1999, by the grace of God and with all sense of humility, he already was a man of means and substance.  Please, let us rewind to 1999 and recall what the so-called APC champions in Rivers State today were and how well they were living.

In serving the people of Rivers State for several years in government, he has shown uncommon pedigree in honesty, transparency, integrity, dedication to service and unfathomable loyalty, not blindness and betrayal of Rivers People trust.

While, mudslinging may have become part of the hazards of our political ethos, let Chief Ikanya and his cohorts, who may have been picked from the gutter and brought to where they are today, confess same to the general public and not seek to include Engr. Tele Ikuru as he is a blue blooded fine bred from a respectable background and family.

Let Chief Ikanya and his co-gutter travelers know that the true Judas are those whose parents never contributed to the founding of the State, and have no historical attachment or stake to the wellbeing of the State and indeed the entire Niger Delta, therefore are ready to sell the State on the altar of their megalomanic and over bloated self-ambition.

History will judge between those who seek to sell Rivers State on the altar of ambition and those who stood with the people to take back the State to its rightful place and owners. History will judge between those whose only interest in Rivers State is what they can steal from her and those who sacrifice their comfort and convenience to protect the integrity and pride of our people. History and time will be the quintessential arbiter and judge of the decisions we make and actions we take.

 

Biobele Da-Wariboko

1. A. Special Duties

To Deputy Governor

What did your fathers contribute to Rivers State - Tele Ikuru asks APC members