Alphonsus Agborh chronicles the intrigues, and hurdles the PDP governorship candidate, Sheriff Oborevwori crossed before emerging victorious at last Saturday’s election
The governorship election in Delta state has come and gone leaving behind sadness for some and joy for others. Unlike the presidential and national assembly election, where Peter Obi won 18 of the 25 local government areas of the state with a total number of 342,866 votes, the Labour party performed abysmally as it could not win in any local government area in the governorship election.
At the end of the election, the candidate of Peoples Democratic party and Speaker of the state house of assembly, Sheriff Oborevwori won by polling 360, 234 of the 687,121 total votes cast as against 240,229 secured by his major rival and the deputy Senate president, Ovie Omo Agege of APC.
PDP’s Oborevwori swept all the local governments in Delta north and south senatorial zones, leaving Omo Agege with four of the eight council areas in the central zone which is considered as his stronghold. The areas he won were Ughelli north, Ughelli south, Udu and Uwvie local governments.
The candidate of LP Kenneth Pela polled 48,047 votes to place third position even as he didn’t win in any local government area just as the candidate of APGA, Chief Great Ogboru who has serially contested governorship position since 2003 came out fourth with 11021 votes. Similarly Omo Agege’s running mate and former deputy speaker of the state house of assembly, Hon Friday Osanebi lost in his constituency of Ndokwa east local governments and the entire Ndokwa nation.
The deputy Senate president has however rejected the result and forwarded a petition to INEC to look into the details of 19 local government areas where he suspected irregularities. The journey of the political actors into Delta government house began in earnest during the primary last year in which the incumbent governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa and former governor and the tactician considered as the godfather of Delta PDP, Chief James Ibori got enmeashed in a thug of war to produce the next governor.
At the end, Chief Ibori’s favourite, Olorogun David Edevie, former commissioner for finance in the state, lost out with Okowa’s candidate, Sheriff Oborevwori emerging.
This did not go down well with some members of the party, who were sympathetic to the Ibori’s cause of making Edevie the next governor. They quickly took a legal action against the candidacy of Oborevwori, who won at the Supreme Court as PDP candidate. Somehow, the supporters didn’t relent in the fight. Some of them including those in the state executive council even lost their jobs as the cold war between father and son persisted although
Okowa camp severally denied any frigid relationship between the duo.
Nevertheless, the aggrieved party members decided to form a powerful force, called Delta Unity Group, to ensure their principal, Ibori’s voice is heard on who emerges the next governor. Unconfirmed report had it that the group was working for the candidate of APC to emerge as most of them had serious romance with political events organised by Omo Agege. As it were, Omo Agege is a political son of Ibori who, as governor, brought him closer to his chest in the heydays of PDP in 1999. Ibori made him secretary to the state government.
It is interesting to note that the governorship candidates of major political parties in the state were chosen from Delta central, eminently populated by the Urhobos, a factor that truly influenced the election. They are Oborevwori of PDP, Omo Agege of APC, Great Ogboru of APGA , Kenneth Pela of LP, and Kenneth Gbagi of SDP among others. The PDP has always maintained a rotational method among the three Senatorial zones in choosing its candidate since 1999. No wonder the battle during the governorship election was tense with pockets of violence recorded in the zone.
Meanwhile, Oborevwori has extended his hand of fellowship to all to join him in building a greater state of Delta as contained in his message to the people shortly after declared winner of the election by INEC. “I invite you to join me to work together for the greater good of the State that we all love and want to see become the standard of excellence. I believe our differences are nothing compared to what we can achieve together,” he pleaded.
