•The Ibori, Omo-Agege, Keyamo undercurrents
Old and new wine in a bottle BEFORE Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and his predecessor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, emptied the structure of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State, last Monday, in Asaba, the state capital, there is what political figures in the state referred to as the old APC.
Aside the founding leader of the APC in the state, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor; Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo (SAN); the serial governorship candidate known as the People’s General, Chief Great Ogboru; and Senator Ede Dafinone, representing Delta Central, virtually all the other APC chieftains in the state before the latest Oborevwori’s defection were previously PDP members.
The past PDP, now APC, leaders include the former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who was the 2023 governorship candidate; Senator Peter Nwaboshi, aka Oracle; former Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and currently, Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr. Chiedu Ebie; erstwhile SSG, Comrade Ovuozorie Macaulay; political strategist, Chief Paulinus Akpeki; and former Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Victor Ochei.
The lengthy list also includes another former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe; two former Speakers, Rt. Hon. Olisa Imegwu, and Rt. Hon Monday Igbuya; a former House of Representatives member, Daniel Reyenieju; a former Delta House of Assembly member, Hon. Evans Ivwurie; an ex-House of Representatives member, Mrs. Mercy Almona-Isei, and Chief Judith Enamuotor; and a former Commissioner and Board of Trustees, BOT, member of PDP.
The mutual rage of the ex-PDP bigwigs who convened under the Delta Unity Group (DUG), a political pressure group led by a former PDP governorship aspirant, Olorogun David Edevbie, before coalescing into the APC, was that former Governor Okowa allegedly discriminated against them.
They also accused him of disobeying the overall leader and former governor of the state, Chief James Ibori, by choosing Oborevwori as the PDP governorship candidate in the last governorship poll.
Omo-Agege, accentuating the collective mission, told the DUG defectors back then in 2023, ”The common struggle now is to chase Governor Okowa and PDP away. I formally welcome all our leaders. We have no joiners and no founders, people will be rewarded for what they do.”
State Chairman of the APC, also an ex-PDP leader, Elder Omeni Sobotie, added that when Ibori was governor, nobody left the PDP, but under Okowa, greed and pride destroyed the party.
It is politically understood in Delta that the APC is an assembly of ex-PDP leaders and members disgruntled with the party, especially under the leadership of Okowa.
So, the undertaking was to overthrow Okowa and everything he represents in the state, including Oborevwori, the favoured one who later emerged as governor.
However, the old APC also had its own internal problem, which resulted in Keyamo leading a faction, and Omo-Agege heading the other.
The two factions worked against each other until last Monday when Oborevwori and Okowa unpredictably defected to the same APC.
The PDP members who defected to the APC lately are known as the new APC in the state’s political lingo. Senator Ned Nwoko, representing Delta North, joined the old APC in January from the PDP, before the mass PDP defection, and is regarded as an old APC member.
It is a marriage of two warring political sides bent on dealing with each other until the April 28 shocker in the state. The old APC is more aggrieved of the two sides.
Political watchers never envisaged that there would ever be a time in the state when the PDP would empty into the APC.
It was an incredible act to conceive until the former PDP leadership under Oborevwori announced the plan on April 22 and concretized it on April 28.
Before Oborevwori took over as the APC leader in the state, the party was torn between two factions.
Dafinone and Senator Thomas Joel-Onowakpor, representing the Delta South, whose election Omo-Agege smoothed in 2023, seemed not to be dancing to his music anymore.
Mrs. Erhiatake Ibori-Suenu, Ibori’s daughter, representing the Ethiope federal constituency, switched from the PDP to the APC last year.
With the mass defection, the new and old members of the PDP are back together in a new-look APC, and there is bound to be disagreement along interest lines.
As the state’s new APC leader, Oborevwori must carefully manage a number of issues to avoid an impending conflict.
When Senator Adolphus Wabara, the PDP’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT), predicted that the ruling party would soon disintegrate due to PDP members defecting, likely dislodging devoted APC members who helped form the party, it seemed as though he was targeting the Delta APC.
Ibori issue
Ibori, popularly known as Odidigborigbo, has been the de facto leader of the prominent political players in Delta since 1999 in the PDP, which had ruled the state for 25 years until Oborevwori decamped.
Ibori, a founding leader of the PDP, has not formally resigned from the party, as Oborevewori and Okowa just did.
He has also not declared for the APC, but his image looms large in the Delta APC.
The leader distanced himself from the PDP in the state around 2022 when Okowa chose Oborevwori over his preferred candidate, Edevbie.
He supported Omo-Agege of the APC in the 2023 governorship poll against Oborevwori, and some of the leaders who dumped PDP before the present development were purportedly miffed that Okowa undermined Ibori because of Oborevwori.
In the Delta APC, Ibori is a more respected leader because he is close to President Bola Tinubu. He is still angry with Okowa for consecrating Oborevwori, according to sources, so the governor must win his favor in order to effectively manage his interests and stop new attacks from old rivals in his new party.
Though it will depend on the governor’s reaction, Ibori is unlikely to impede Oborevwori’s chances of winning a second term ticket in 2027 because the odds are currently in his favor.
Omo-Agege/Keyamo factors
Once more, Omo-Agege had invested in the APC that Oborevwori took over as leader in the hopes that the APC would attempt to unseat Oborevwori and Okowa in the state by using the 2024 plan that was implemented in Edo State.
He installed the party’s structure across the ward and local government levels, a development that did not go down well with members of the opposing faction.
The ex-DSP, however, fell apart with the state party chairman, Elder Omeni Sobotie, whom he also set up, and some members of the State Working Committee over the outcome of the 2023 polls.
The Keyamo-led College of Leaders did not give him breathing space when it became clear that he wanted to dominate the other leaders, and that is the gravamen of some leaders’ discontent with him.
Keyamo is not much interested in contesting the 2027 governorship election, and being among those who encouraged Oborevwori’s coming to the APC, he would support his 2027 re-run ambition.
But Oborevwori should not undermine the Keyamo group, which declared him the undisputed leader of the party on April 27 when Omo-Agege was still not ready to surrender
Ogboru connection
Omo-Agege does not spare his political opponents, including his one-time benefactor, Ogboru, whom he ran out of the APC in 2022/2023, forcing Ogboru to flee the party for the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), on whose platform he contested the 2023 governorship elections.
The People’s General, who was APC governorship flag bearer in the 2019 elections, only just returned to the APC, with the support of Keyamo and other APC leaders, who smoothed his return.
While Ogboru has no axe to grind with Oborevwori and might support the governor’s re-election bid in 2027, the same cannot be guaranteed of Omo-Agege at the moment.
Will the Obarisi of Urhobo land relinquish his gubernatorial ambition and support Oborevwori?
New members’ uproar
No doubt, there will be a problem of new APC members integrating with the old APC members, especially at the ward level, where they had been in a cat-and-mouse relationship over the years.
The governor has to be open, frank, and methodical in sorting out the registration of new members’ hurdles and other matters arising from the defection.
How Oborevwori can tie the dissimilar tendencies — Party leaders
A source, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard, said it is unlikely that Omo-Agege would give up his governorship ambition to support Oborevwori.
His words: “We cannot rule out the possibility of an implosion in the party because the Ovie Omo-Agege that he joined in the party has an ambition.
“He will not stop at anything; he will look for a platform to contest against him, and, at that point, it is called implosion because there will be a movement from APC too.
”Surely, the governor will set up a new structure in the party, which Omo-Agege cannot overrun, but I cannot say what his move will be until the time comes.
“Omo-Agege will surely not want to relinquish his ambition; he will surely push for it. The race for 2027 has just begun, and other political parties will see him as a big catch.
“And if he sees a viable platform, he will jump on it. He may leave to actualize his ambition.”
Another party leader, however, said, “Omo-Agege can step down from his governorship ambition and support Oborevwori depending on what you put on the table for him.
“There are interests; there are tendencies. If all the interests are not well managed, that is where the problem in the party will come from, because everybody who gathered on Monday has an interest in 2027.
“How to manage the interests will determine the future of the APC in the state.
“I don’t see Omo-Agege leaving the APC. He built the party using his capacity as Deputy Senate President. In Delta State, he transformed the APC into a formidable opposition party”.
The governor, who is not a greenhorn politician, should be able to discern the real matters, build bridges, and bring the two factions and all other dissenting forces together to avoid a cataclysmic outcome.
“Let me tell you, APC is not like PDP…” he said at the Cenotaph in Asaba, where he officially defected to the APC, “We are taking charge, and the governor takes charge.”
He stated, “I do not believe in any faction,” referring to either the Festus Keyamo or Ovie Omo-Agege factions.
“Everybody must queue and unite to move the state forward for the benefit of the state and bring development and peace to Delta State and Nigeria,” the governor added.
The APC leader who spoke to Sunday Vanguard continued: “He should unite the different factions. He has demonstrated the ability to manage people, and with the APC structure in his hands, many think he can navigate the various interests.
“He has the total support of his predecessor and godfather, Senator Okowa, an exceptional political tactician whose ingenuity brought the governor to power.
“Having Okowa on his side is a big plus for Oborevwori, not only because of the overwhelming influence he wields in their former party and beyond but also for his uncanny ability to successfully maneuver complex situations, as he demonstrated in the 2023 governorship election”. (Vanguard)
