2019: Okowa aide berates Utomi, Ochei others over alleged gang up

Ahead of the 2019 governorship election, Executive Assistant to the Governor of Delta State on Communications, Dr Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe, has warned Prof Pat Utomi, Dr Cairo Ojuogboh and Mr Victor Ochei over alleged gang-up against Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, ahead of the gubernatorial elections in the state.

TribuneOnline reports that Utomi, Ochei and Ojuogboh are three frontline governorship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from Delta North could give incumbent a run for his money.

Dr Oghenesivbe gave the warning in a swift reaction to an official declaration made on April 30, 2018, in Evwreni town, Ughelli North by the leadership of Delta APC to field Delta North candidate in 2019 and Delta Central candidate in 2023, respectively.

Oghenesivbe disclosed in a statement that the power tussle desperation revealed a deliberate gang-up by the trio of Ojuogboh, Utomi and Ochei, with the backing of the mainstream caucus of the party led by 2015 APC gubernatorial candidate, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor.

He opined that the meeting arranged to zone governorship to Delta North was deliberately boycotted by embattled Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and Chief Great Ogboru.

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This development, he averred, gave credence to the fact that the Delta APC faction led by Chief Ogboru is not on the same page with Emerhor’s mainstream faction; a development that would spark off another prolonged supremacy battle in the party.

“A baby in politics can tell with the ease that the governorship zoning arrangement announced at the Evwreni meeting does not reflect the decision of the entire party structure in the state; because the Ogboru faction was not represented to give credence to the Delta North gubernatorial candidate agenda being sold to Deltans by the mainstream cabal.

“It is obvious in its entirety that Ogboru can never be cajoled into the North agenda because if he agrees, age will no longer be on his side in 2023 to present himself for governorship election.

“Away from that, Olorogun Emerhor will never reverse his decision to support Delta North candidate so as to frustrate and checkmate the domineering political sagacity of his core rival, Ogboru.

“Even as Emerhor and Ogboru pull political strings and engages themselves in coded and underground power politics; the Delta North APC Guber aspirants cannot on their own gather enough momentum to clinch the party’s ticket.

“Reason is that the three aspirants do not have the capacity to match the combined overbearing political weight of Gov Okowa and Chief James Onanefe Ibori.

“Utomi, Ochei and Ojuogboh are riding through the back and deep pockets of Emerhor, a man well endowed financially to reasonably bankroll his preferred Delta North candidate.

“Emerhor was the financial godfather to Ogboru during their sweet political romance in the now moribund Democratic Peoples Party (DPP).

“Ogboru, on the other hand, will rely heavily on Senator Omo-Agege to fund his campaign for his support to return to the Senate either via the APC, APGA or any other backstage political party.

“Delta North gubernatorial candidate under the mainstream arrangement shall fail woefully because Delta Central votes will largely go to the PDP and Okowa while Ogboru will smuggle a little fraction of the votes as APGA or other party’s gubernatorial candidate.

“It is also the views of political observers that Delta South will not support any APC Delta North candidate because of the full endorsement of Gov Okowa by the major political leaders in Delta South, Central and North, respectively.

In all, the triangular relationship between Ochei, Ojuogboh and Utomi will definitely crack because the trio are strange bird fellows in politics who’re trying to tolerate themselves under harsh political conditions as can be seen from the pending chronic crisis between Ogboru’s light of APC and Emerhor’s APC mainstream,” Oghenesivbe enthused.

Meanwhile, the APC in Delta under the leadership of Chief Emerhor, has vowed to edge out Senator Okowa from the government house in Asaba and has claimed that the factions in the party are working together to bring up consensus candidates to wrest power from the ruling PDP.