Irate Youths Stab Delta State Commissioner

Youths suspected to be members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Uwheru community, Ughelli North Local Government Area, Delta State, on Saturday, descended on the Delta State Commissioner for Secondary and Basic Education, Professor Patrick Muoboghare, over the inauguration of the newly -elected executive.

The event was an inauguration of ward executive members of the PDP  in Ughelli Local Government Area of the state.

As of the time of filing this report, the said commissioner, who received several stabs in his body, is recuperating at the intensive care unit of the  Delta State University Teaching Hospital in Oghara.

The commissioner was said to have only escaped being killed, but escaped with injuries he sustained from several dagger and machetes.

The event was said to have turned sour on Saturday as the commissioner, Professor Muoboghare, was beaten to a pulp by the youth who were said to have  stormed the venue .

Muoboghare, an indigene of Uwheru community, was among other leaders of the PDP billed to witness the inauguration of the  ward executive at the party’s secretariat in Ughelli.

He was said to have abandoned his constituency for long, which was said to have been one of the reasons that angered the youth to  leach their anger on him.

Stating the probable immediate cause of the mayhem, a witness said the commissioner incurred the wrath of the youth, following a disagreement over the list of members of the executive, billed to be inaugurated at the ceremony.

The list  was said to have been allegedly manipulated and doctored to favour some leaders without any congress and Muoboghare, among others, was  allegedly fingered in the manipulation.

Reacting to the incident, Chairman of Grassroots Politicians in Ughelli, Chief Pius Ovbije, who  condemned the  attack on the commissioner,  said   the incident was  the  result  of what his group had been preaching against, which is imposition of candidates.

A  member in the state House of Assembly, representing Ughelli Constituency 11, Honourable Rufus Edoja Akpodiete,  said, “I really do not know what led to the violence but whatever led to such an assault that is capable of eliminating one’s life, is condemned.”

Meanwhile, sources informed that the state’s  Deputy Governor,  Professor  Amos Utuama,  who got a wind of the incident, immediately directed the Commissioner for Health, Dr Joseph Otumara,  to move in and rescue the victim.

The Health Commissioner, according to sources, immediately mobilised doctors at the General Hospital Ughelli to rescue the bleeding commissioner to Ufor Hospital to stabilise him, before the arrival of an ambulance for his transfer  to the Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara.

No official reaction had been made as of the time of filing this report.