Group want Urhobo appointed as PTI Principal

By Chinyere Okoroafor

Urhobo Advancement Agenda (UAA), an advocate for equity, fairness, and justice has made a case for the appointment of one of their own into the principal position of Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) .

In a statement by its National President, Comrade Theophilus Akpocha, Urhobo indigenes have been overlooked for the position for a long time despite the overabundance of core professionals eminently qualified for the position.

The statement reads: “UAA as a foremost advocate for equity, fairness, and justice in the affairs of Urhobo Nation strongly condemns this move to repeatedly shortchange the Urhobo because of their natural disposition to peaceful co-existence and warm hospitality often taken for granted.

”The Urhobo have over the years been grossly marginalised in the appropriation of the nation’s commonwealth in the midst of playing host to enormous revenue resources, oiling the wheel of growth and development of the country.

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“UAA is hereby using this medium to call on the appropriate authorities in the succession management of the Institute to ensure that the pool of qualified candidates of Urhobo extraction is duly accorded the Right of First Refusal as it is done in other notable Federal institutions in the country’’.

”UAA has put up mechanisms to remotely and keenly monitor the process of the appointment of the Principal of the Institute this time, with high expectations that the Federal Government will use this opportunity to right some of the wrongs of the past meted on the Urhobo Nation.

”We strongly believe that this would be a step in the right direction in guaranteeing the continued peace and tranquility enjoyed by the Institute since it was founded and hosted on Urhobo soil for almost 50 years now.