THE POLITRICKS IN DELTA POLITICS

By Chris Okpuno——-

It all started in the last quarter of Chief James Ibori’s second tenure when those who wanted to take over the mantle of Delta political leadership from Ibori decided to indicate their interest in PDP.

Chief Pius Ehwerido ( then Deputy Speaker of DTHA ), Dr Ifeanyi Okowa ( Commissioner for Health ) Obarisi Ovie Omo-Agege (Commissioner Special Duties ) and Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan ( SSG ) though EEU refused to declare at the early stage because, during the UPU groundbreaking ceremony at the Ughelli fundraising, all the other aspirants were invited one after, but EEU refused to be addressed as an aspirant but donated as the SSG.

Then the PDP caucus in Delta has floated a very powerful sub political group under the name “CORE GROUP” and meanwhile two aspirants, Okowa and Ehwerido had wide loyalists in that group, so immediately Ibori noticed that the group was almost getting stronger than the PDP, he (Ibori) send a signal to Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan to immediately disband the Core Group with his powers as SSG which eventually happened.

Just after the “Core Group” was disbanded Ehwerido became stronger in Delta Central and Okowa became the don in Delta North including some parts of Delta South.

So, as to weaken Ehwerido in the Delta Central, he (Ibori) mapped out another strategy just three days to the main PDP primaries, by suggesting to Chief Ighoyota Amori (then the powerful Political Adviser to Ibori) to initiate a mock PDP primary for only Delta Central aspirants at the Osubi Trade Center ground between Ehwerido, Omo-Agege and other two low key sponsored aspirants.

Meanwhile, Ibori has instructed that the mock primaries should hold so that only one Delta Central aspirant (from the mock) will run at the main PDP primaries.

While the mock primaries were on at Osubi, news got to Ibori that Ehwerido was leading overwhelmingly and immediately Ibori send a powerful brown envelope to all the organizers of the mock election and an SMS message to Amori instructing that Omo-Agege should win the election.

Another SMS was sent to chief Amori while the mock election was still ongoing and immediately the message was forwarded to all the election officers at the venue of the election and then some funny things started, overturning at the election ground, about 70% of Ehwerido’s votes were voided for no good reason and Omo-Agege was to be declared as the winner when all of a sudden Ehwerido appeared at the venue in a mafia-style and started showing the electorates an SMS forward to one of his loyalists,  who happens to be one of the election officers instructing that the election should at all cost go the Omo-Agege way, so in that development, there was pandemonium at the venue and everyone has to leave the venue ( una know sey Ehwerido na mafia na ) and the election became inconclusive.

But notwithstanding the inconclusiveness of the election, a fake result was then given to me by those in charge of the election to go to DBS (TV & Radio) for news stating that Omo-Agege has won the mock primaries conducted for the Delta Central district of PDP.

Honestly, I took a very big risk of my life that day while driving my car to Asaba so as to get to DBS before the news at seven.

And immediately I got to DBS before the seven o clock successfully but to my surprise met with another instruction from the SSG’s office that my news about the mock (which I was instructed to pay as commercial news) should not be taken.

I was so confused because I didn’t know how they knew that I would get the news to DBS on time.

I could not go back to report to those who sent me that day, so I had to call them on phone to narrate what happened at DBS even though I got to the place 35 minutes before the time.

The next day, I had to drive back to Mosogar (my base na) very early in the morning.

In the morning of the D-day for the main PDP primaries to be held at Ogwash Uku, we were getting ready to move when suddenly Chief Amori received a message from Chief Ibori inviting Amori to come over to Oghara so that they can all move in the same convoy.

We got to Oghara that morning and Amori joined Ibori in his car and the convoy now set forth to Ogwashi Uku for the PDP primaries and immediately we got to Ogwashi Uku junction by the Benin-Asaba express road the convoy just drove straight to Asaba, so, I had to call Chief Amori to know about the sudden change but to my surprise, his phone was switched off (because the Amori that I know never switches off his phone).

I was later reliably informed that Ibori jokingly seized Amori’s phone and switched it off.

I know Chief Amori to be very good with messages and I can understand why Ibori did that.

When we got to Asaba, the convoy drove straight to the governor’s lounge (resident) and immediately we got there Omo-Agege, Okowa was already there and in about 5 minutes time Ehwerido appeared and they all went into the parlour downstairs to seat and then Ibori emerged from the stairs and exchanged pleasantries with all of them ( Omo-Agege, Okowa and Ehwerido ) but unknowingly to all of them that EEU was upstairs secretly waiting ).

Chief Ibori now dropped the bombshell by letting the cat out of the bag, by telling them that all his eggs are in EEU’s basket and immediately Omo-Agege tried to interrupt Ibori in telling him of this swift change in plans, but Ibori interrupted Ovie by asking him (Ovie) if he was trying to be disloyal to the leadership of the team.

In that confused state, Ehwerido stood up and left the house so annoyed then Okowa followed suit while Amori was so surprised at the sudden development.

We all, both Ibori, Amori left with the convoy to Ogwashi Uku the venue for the PDP primaries, and when we got to Ogwashi Uku almost all the delegates were singing with Okowa’s name and the election now commenced, however, EEU won following Ibori’s intervention.