UPU Youthwing Election: I Was Spiritually Attacked, House Raided, But Confident Of Victory – Umukoro

By Daniel Dafe

One of the aspirants vying to be President of the Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, Youthwing, Worldwide, Comrade Efemena Umukoro, has said that he will emerge victorious on Saturday despite the many battles he recently faced ahead of the contest.

Comrade Umukoro who spoke to Oasis Magazine on Thursday in a phone conversation, revealed how he was carried to the venue for the screening for aspirants by the Election committee led by Rev. Fr. Ekabo.

His words: “On the screening day, I was spiritually attacked. It took the grace of God to remove what they attacked me with. In Urhobo they call it Itagba. They carried me in that condition to the screening. The Committee in charge of the election saw it with their eyes. From the hospital I left and then went for traditional care.”

He added: “The next day, they wrote a petition that I am not a graduate. I graduated with a second class lower from the department of Sociology in Delta State University, Abraka. One Ochuko Rume wrote the petition. The second petitioner’s identity was not disclosed by the Committee. Next, they said I am not a Nigerian but a Ghanian. In all the countries I have visited as a young man, I have not visited Ghana. My father and my mother are proudly Orogun.”

Meanwhile, he disclosed that on Wednesday, while he was in Warri for his normal consultation and movement, he got a distress phone call from his mother, Mrs. Lovette Umukoro about 2 o’clock, saying that robbers were in his house.

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“It has never happened in this my new apartment. They jumped through the fence and got into the house thinking no one was in. Some of my cars were not there, so they assumed we were not in. They got in through the window. While they were ransacking the house, they saw that my mother was in. Thank God they did not strangle her to death. They locked her out on the corridor. S,o she was the one that called out for help before the local vigilante, police and other police teams came,” he said.

According to him, the thieves went away with the key of his apartment so that his mother was unable to run out for help.

Speaking further, Umukoro said: “Luckily her small phone was with her. They turned my room upside down. My wedding bead, my wife’s jewelry bag were carried away.”

Continuing, he stressed that nobody has a monopoly of violence.

“That I have decided to play cool doesn’t mean I don’t have arsenals to trouble their homes. But, this is a youth and brotherly election and such characters ought not to be displayed in any way. I see some of them parading cultism as if it is a norm in Urhobo land, flying yellow berets and advertising themselves as cultist. They should understand that the Nigeria law does not give room for such practice.

“Nobody has the monopoly of violence. I don’t want to interrupt the investigation of the police who are already looking into the issue,” he said.

He thanked the Divisional Police Officer,, CSP Florence, saying: “Immediately she was called, she deployed her men. This means the police are accountable.to the masses. I also trust her investigation and I believe that after this, the culprit will be brought to book.”

He also called on the contestants to understand that only God gives power.

“You don’t have to kill or hurt someone before you win. I will not take such madness again. They know that if they came at night they will meet massive resistance hence they came in the day.

“I am firm and I know that victory is sure. This is just a way of demoralizing me; but it won’t work. We would be more focused to ensure that at the end of the day, victory is ours,” he opined.

Also, Mrs. Umukoro who confirmed the attack on her son’s residence, said it was a tough challenge and was miraculously saved from the suspect that entered the apartment who after noticing that she was at home wanted to harm her.

She said he escaped through the window, before good Samaritans came in to her rescue.