As the 2019 general elections draw nearer, plans by the Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, to dump his deputy, Kingsley Otuaro, have reached an advanced stage, our correspondent has learnt.
It was gathered that the recent local government council election, held across the state on January 8, 2018, might have given a clear indication that the Okowa-led administration no longer enjoyed the support of the majority of Deltans as the ruling Peoples Democratic Party struggled to win at the polls.
In September 2017, rumours were rife in the state that one Bernard Edewor had been chosen to replace Otuaro as Okowa’s deputy in 2019.
It was learnt that Okowa, said to be having a serious battle of trust and loyalty with ex-governor James Ibori, was not too comfortable with Otuaro on the grounds that his major political godfather and ex-militant leader, Tompolo, was no longer on ground to muster the kind of financial support he gave him in 2015.
Our correspondent gathered that Okowa’s calculation was that with the face-off between him and Ibori, he needed to pick his deputy from Ibori’s Central Senatorial District to enable him to finally whittle down the former governor’s perceived grip on that area while also plotting to use it to checkmate the emerging APC in Ethiope East Local Government, being Chief Great Ogboru’s home front.
It was further learnt that when some Ijaw leaders, who got wind of the plot, reached out to Okowa to appeal to him to rescind the plan to drop his incumbent deputy, he bluntly refused to see them and rather told some of his close aides that Otuaro was never his preferred candidate.
Okowa was said to have told them that he only accepted to run with Otuaro because that was the only condition under which Tompolo would have agreed to pump funds into his campaign in 2015, noting that having made Otuaro deputy governor for four years, he had paid back all the funds Tompolo invested in him.
But, according to one of Okowa’s aides, who pleaded anonymity, the governor had planned to drop his deputy, who is from Delta South, for another yet-to-be identified candidate from Delta Central as a political strategy to secure the support of that senatorial district in the 2019 elections.
He said, “Okowa has performed terribly bad across the state and he should not deceive himself that he is going to win any election come 2019. He has failed the people and the people have resolved to pay him back in 2019 by not voting for him.
“How would you describe a situation whereby the governor is only concentrating his energy on developing only his own kinsmen? He has neglected other districts in the state. All the projects that are being executed are all in Delta North. He should not deceive himself in 2019, because he is not going to get the votes of the Urhobo people. What has he done for us that will warrant us to vote for him?”
He added, “He knows that 2019 is around the corner and he has come to repair the street lights in Warri and environs. Okowa cannot deceive us. For three years, there was nothing to show the presence of government in Delta Central. So, why is he coming to fix streetlights now that he knows that he needs our support? We cannot fall for such cheap deception.
“As I am talking to you now, there are plans already on how Okowa is going to dump his deputy so that he can win elections in 2019. Okowa thinks that by choosing a deputy governor from Delta Central, the Urhobo people will vote for him. But it is not going to work. He is going to fail woefully in the coming election.”
