The battle for the 2019 governorship in Delta State is becoming very interesting. Presently, palpable tension and fear of the unknown pervade the camp of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in the state following alleged secret meetings with the Delta North leaders, especially the home of the State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the state, Chief Great Ogboru.
According to reliable sources, Ogboru had, last week, allegedly attempted to woo the kingsmen of the Governor in the entire Ika Land with mouth-watering gifts and money to make him the next Governor instead of Okowa, their son.
But his gifts , which many of the people considered as Greek gifts, were reportedly turned down, particularly by the Obi of Owa Kingdom, HRM Emmanuel Efezeimo, whom sources say, insisted that there was no vacancy in the Delta Government House come 2019.
The referred traditional ruler, Efezeimo, was quoted as allegedly saying, “we don’t need any gifts from Chief Ogboru because there is no vacancy in Government House,” adding “Our son will rule till 2030 before any Urhobo person can be Governor, it’s settled, we will not allow Ogboru to come in at all.”
APC should have picked its governorship candidate from Delta North Senatorial district…the permutation that the APC would use federal might to overrun the state is absurd…Ogboru is just wasting his time, Ogboru has had his time and cannot win any election
While some of the leaders were alleged to have collected the money and gifts from Ogboru, boasting that Okowa cannot win the 2019 election, sources said during Ogboru’s alleged clandestine meetings held before the embargo for political parties’ campaigns was lifted, some PDP chieftains in Kwale, Ogwashi Uku, Ughelli and Ibusa communities had allegedly resolved to make the elections difficult for Okowa, whom they allegedly described as tribalistic and vindictive.
In one of the meetings, Ogboru was allegedly quoted as saying,”Okowa’s kinsmen have agreed to work for me and we shall sweep Okowa out of office come 2019 and everything has been put in place to ensure this will of God to push out Okowa. PDP is a conglomerate of double standards, Delta State has suffered a litany of setback in the recent past and we need to change its leadership through our votes. APC is not folding its hands to allow PDP to continue to rule.”
And contrary to the claims that Ogboru’s running mate was picked because of his political prowess, and experience, details emerged last Tuesday that Ogboru ran out of options after his offer was turned down by loyal subjects of Anioma extractions.
Ogboru reportedly picked his running mate, Ossai Abeh, who until recently, was the state Chairman of the defunct Light of Labour, a pressure group convened by Ogboru after collapsing its structure from Labour Party, which was fused into the APC.
However, findings revealed that Ogboru, in the quest to pick his running mate from Delta North Senatorial district, which is the home district of the Gov. Okowa, ran out of options and fell back to Abeh who had been his political stooge over the years in the state.
It was gathered that Ogboru had approached other chieftains of the party, including two-time governorship aspirants of the party, Dr Cairo Ojuogbo and Victor Ochei, to be his running mate having lost out in the controversial APC governorship primaries that produced Ogboru as the governorship candidate of the party. But Ochei was said to have been nursing some grudges as a result of the outcome of the APC primaries which recorded some gunshots.
In a statement issued by his media team, headed by Emmanuel Ojeme, Ojougbuo had denied accepting to be running mate to Ogboru, saying,”he was not interested in becoming a deputy governorship candidate.”
The statement emphatically said,”we are making it clear for the interest of the public and unsuspecting APC family that there was no arrangements of such, the only arrangements is to ensure APC take over the state come
2019.”
But in a quest to pick his running mate from Okowa’s senatorial district, Ogboru must have looked inward to settle for Abeh as Abeh, who hails from Obiaruku in Ukwuani Local Government Area of the state, was reported to have made a vow to ensure victory for the APC in all the elections.
Penultimate week, foremost Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, had reportedly taken a swipe at Chief Ogboru and the APC, saying Ogboru was wasting his time because he would not be able to defeat Gov. Okowa of the PDP in the 2019
election.
The elder statesman was emphatic that APC should have picked its governorship candidate from Delta North Senatorial district, describing as absurd, the permutation that the APC would use federal might to overrun the state, adding, “Ogboru is just wasting his time, Ogboru has had his time and cannot win any election.”
According to Clark, “Delta Central Senatorial district has had the governorship through Chief James Ibori for eight years, the South had it for eight years through Emmanuel Uduaghan and the North is having its turn now through Okowa. Even at the national level of the party, everybody believes in zoning arrangement.”
