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2019: Crack In Ibori, Uduaghan, Okowa Political Camps

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Barely few months to political party primaries ahead the 2019 general elections, all appears not to be well with the political camp of incumbent Delta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, his predecessor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan and that of their political mentor, former Governor James Ibori.

BigPen Online can authoritatively report that there is no love lost in the relationship between the trio over some irreconcilable differences dating back to 1999 when Ibori became governor of the oil rich state.

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Political pundits say the trio may part ways if care is not taken owing to growing animosity and bitterness over some unsettled issues.

BigPen Online which has been following the political chess game, observed that an ongoing political vendetta under the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is about to tear the party apart.

However, unlike the All Progressive Congress (APC) leaders that have failed to manage their crisis discreetly over the years, PDP gladiators had managed the subtle war going on in the party since the assumption of office of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.

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We gathered that since Okowa assumed office as Governor after riding on Ibori’s shoulders and that of former Niger-Delta militant commander, Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) to clinch the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) ticket in the state in 2015, he has been trying to undo Uduaghan who is believed to have stood against his emergence as governor in 2015.

BigPen Online understands Okowa, besides making efforts to whittle down Ibori’s influence on his government had grossly engaged in a destructive feud against Uduaghan and Peter Nwaoboshi, both of whom stood vehemently against his appointment as Commissioner during Ibori’s first tenure of office.

The source cited how Nwaoboshi was recently dealt with over corruption related allegations, asserting that it was actually Okowa that was pulling the strings.

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Our source also cited how Okowa had scrapped nearly all policies of his predecessor including undermining him in the recent PDP National Convention as evidence of the growing but concealed resentment he has for Uduaghan.

BigPen Online can authoritatively report that Chief Ighoyota Amori, an unapologetic apostle of former governor Ibori, whose sojourn to the senate was cut short by a Court of Appeal ruling in Benin, had sometime ago complained to Ibori and some very close associates that Okowa was responsible for his exit from the red chamber.

The source also cited the plot by Okowa’s men to remove the Managing Director of the Delta state Oil Producing Area Development Commission (DESOPADEC), Olorogun Williams Makinde, who was foisted surreptitiously on the governor by Ibori sometime ago as evidence of the infighting in the camps.

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The source disclosed that Okowa’s inclination for paying perceived opponents and those who apparently had stood on his way was huge as Amori till date believes he was the first casualty in Okowa’s bid to clip the wings of Ibori’s henchmen in his government.

Pundits told one of our correspondents that Ibori on his part would have long fallen apart with Okowa even while he was still in UK prison over Okowa’s seemingly hard posture which tend to undermine his associates but the relationship is loosely held by the fact that Okowa, as a sitting governor, is the one “surviving” him.

Ibori, among several others including Okowa’s new political godfather, Prof Sam Oyovwaire are seen in the political corridors of power in the state as current “looting squad” plundering the monthly security votes purportedly used by the Okowa administration to ‘settle’ some key players in the state.

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Dependable sources revealed that the political relationship between Ibori and his successor began to wane after Ibori started mounting pressure on Uduaghan to drop his senatorial ambition and allow Okowa have his way in producing a PDP candidate for Delta South senatorial District despite knowing that he was being annihilated as a former governor.

Okowa, it was learnt had told Ibori that he will never support Uduaghan to realise his ambition to represent the people of Delta South in the Senate in the 2019 general election ostensibly because he wants to pay him back in his own coin.

In 2007, Uduaghan who was not in the political arrangement was used to displace both James Manager and Okowa who both had governorship ambition then because Ibori wanted Uduaghan.

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Manager was said to have been persuaded in 2007 to give up his governorship ambition to go for senate by Ibori who brought in his cousin unceremoniously to take over from him and had arranged Okowa’s appointment as SSG.

Our source said that initial arrangement by Ibori in the 2019 race which didn’t augur well for Okowa was for Uduaghan to go to senate in the Delta South, Amori to take Central while Nwaoboshi to retain his position in the Senate but the place of Manager who pioneered the whole political PDP arrangement was not in the card.

Manager, who threw up Ibori as PDP governorship candidate in 1999 as pioneer chairman of the party was said to have told Ibori point blank that he cannot give way for Uduaghan when there is no alternative arrangement for him.

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However, undermining Ibori’s position, Okowa was said to have emboldened Evelyn Oboro, and Charles Obule into the Central race as well as Michael Diden for Delta South and Ned Nwoko for North as a second option to displace Ibori’s permutations.

Okowa before now had dismantled both Ibori and Uduaghan structures and have empowered new political breeds in the system thus creating his own structures ahead of time.

BigPen Online gathered that Ibori, sensing that the body language of Okowa would heat up the polity had called for a meeting on how he can talk his cousin out of the race but he (Uduaghan) stood his ground.

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The source revealed that there have been serious horse trading between Ibori, Uduaghan and Okowa over the matter but at some point the talks collapsed, prompting Okowa’s men in the government to launch a campaign that Uduaghan was nursing defection from the PDP sometime last year.

Our source disclosed that the rumour of the supposed defection of Uduaghan and his acolytes including former Secretary to the state Government, Comrade Ovouzorie Macaulay who is also facing a political vendetta became intense because Ibori appears to have given up on the persuasion machination.

But in a bid to reassure his supporters that he was still in the race, Uduaghan had recently made public statement that he will never step down for anybody. This followed how Manager broke protocol at a PDP rally in Oleh to publicly announce his interest to retain the Delta South seat in the senate in the presence of Ibori.

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Political watchers believe Uduaghan, being a former governor carried a lot of political weight in the state and because he had sacrificed his ambition in 2015 for former President Goodluck Jonathan’s interest in Delta state, would not, sacrifice this on the altar of political vendetta.

Political analyst are of the view that Manager having enjoyed four tenures amounting to 16 years in the senate should give way for Uduaghan, an Itsekiri to take a shot but Manager believes it would be unfair for Ibori who owes him a “favour” to retire him without a mention of his place come 2019.

The source hinted that each time the dialogue between the trio is failing, Okowa “boys” who also have a growing anger for Uduaghan, run off to the social media to either blackmail or threaten the former governor with “defection attempts” so as to make him change his mind if he had contemplated same.

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Our source however likened what Okowa was playing out as a dangerous ego trip, otherwise he actually knows the negative influence Uduaghan would wield on his 2019 governorship election, if decamping is on the card.

But Okowa also feels Uduaghan should shift ground as he did for him when Ibori foisted him on the party in 2007 after he apparently won the PDP primaries.

Manager, on his part also believes he has played a major role for the entrenchment of PDP in Delta state including the “making” of Ibori who he perceived as his “political mate” and should not be be dispensed with a wave of the hand.

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Political watchers believe that if the PDP doesn’t quickly embark on proper horse trading to resolve the debacle, Uduaghan may just be on his way out of the party in what will certainly brighten the chances of the opposition APC.

BigPen Online learnt that the lack of inclusiveness and internal democracy by the Okowa’s administration are some of reason why possible mass defection is said to be looming in the PDP.

Going by the scenario, our source hinted that there would be justification for anyone who leaves the party including the former governor Uduaghan or Ibori who is long been wooed to the APC by Buhari’s men who are canvassing for presidential waiver for him.

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Moreso, Okowa’s mien in regards to the relationship with political associates of both Ibori and Uduaghan has been very unfriendly that it would be hard to reconcile their difference before the 2019 elections set in.

Okowa however believes he has massively empowered “men” in the system that would fight to sustain their appointment and his reelection in what pundits believe he is now catching on to call the bluff of Uduaghan if he eventually leaves the party.

But what goes for Uduaghan is that during his eight years governorship of the state, he has been able to garner a mass following that would upset the political applecart of the state.

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Written by Joe Ogbodu

 

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