An Itsekiri leader, Dr. Alex Ide, says President Goodluck Jonathan has failed the Itsekiri and that the people will vote for the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) on February 14.

He said this during a news conference in Lagos on Monday.

Ide, who was the Secretary, APC National Convention Committee, said the President had continued to favour the Ijaw to the detriment of the Itsekiri.

He said Jonathan was supposed to have come to perform the groundbreaking of the $16 billion Export Processing Zone, Ogidigben, in November last year but refused to do so because of protests from the Ijaw community led by an ex-militant, Government Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo.

He said, “The President promised to do the groundbreaking of the EPZ gas project. For the past one year, we had been having negotiations with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to forge a way forward with this project. It had absolutely nothing to do with our Ijaw brothers. It was a project in Ogidigben which is an Itsekiri community.

“But 48 hours to the groundbreaking, an Ijaw, Tompolo, said he could not guarantee the safety of the President in the area and for that reason, the President jettisoned that project.

“Nobody from the Presidency thought it fit to come and give any explanation. It is now that elections are around the corner and the tempo seems to be favouring Buhari that the President thought he could quickly come and visit the Olu of Warri and give explanations.

“We feel he is giving too much credence to ethnic considerations because this protest is coming from his people. Otherwise, if it was an Ilaje man that said he was not happy about it, would Jonathan have postponed it?”

The Itsekiri leader said the situation in Delta State had become so bad to the extent that Tompolo was the one that determined key decisions in the state because he is Jonathan’s kinsman.