OGHARA — GOVERNOR James Ibori of Delta State said, yesterday, in his country home, Oghara, Ethiope West local government area, that he was ready to sacrifice his job if the God so pleases to actualize the resource control struggle of the Niger Delta.
He spoke folowing the statement of the President-General of the Izon (Ijaw) National Congress (INC), Prof. Kimse Okoko, who, leading other members on a condolence visit to the governor at his Oghara home, said the Ijaw people were not unaware of the sinister motives of some people and the machinations of the system to bring (him) Ibori down because of his resource control struggle.
His words: "If it pleases God to be sacrificed for it, so be it as long as our people reap the benefit of the supreme sacrifice.”
Dein of Agbor Kingdom, His Royal Majesty, Keagborekuzi 1 also visited the governor with a powerful delegation to declare his support and that of his people towards the burial of his mother, the late Madam Comfort Ibori.
Governor Ibori told the INC leader: “Please go and assure our people that the mandate that they freely gave to me, I am conscious of it, I have no doubt whatsoever in my mind that mandate was given to me to articulate a view for them and I pray to God that the mandate will be executed to the fullest.”
The governor said he was not disturbed by his many trials because he knows that the people who gave him the mandate would stand by in the day and in the night. The governor asserted that “the people of the Niger Delta know their true leaders, they know those who can represent them and represent them well, they know those who will not be enticed away by money, they know those who will not be promised positions in the future and they will abandon the cause."
Chief Ibori equally commended Prof Okoko for his good leadership qualities, revealing for the first time information he got about a meeting which Okoko attended and was very strong and courageous in his articulation of the position of the people of the Niger Delta, adding that when eventually, Okoko came to see him, he told him that the matter was settled because he had noted his pedigree.
Prof. Okoko had earlier in his address, stated that Governor Ibori epitomized the struggle for resource control and the Ijaw people were gladdened by his quality of resilience, adding that the governor was still going about his duty and executing the mantle of leadership, unshaken, despite the travails.
