Ika Nation Rejects Okowa’s Plea to Vote for Nwaoboshi

Barrister Peter “Oracle” Nwaoboshi and Dr. Ifeanyi “Ekwueme” Okowa

The people of Ika nation in Delta State North have dismissed the plea by the Delta State People’s Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candidate Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa that they should vote for Barrister Peter Nwaoboshi as coming too little too late, arguing that the People’s Democratic Party’s Delta North senatorial candidate is a bad product to market.

“Nwaoboshi is a bad product that will not fly in this election. He has stepped on so many toes, including Okowa’s,” said a source working closely with Okowa, who asked not to be named.

OKOWA’S PLEA
Last week at the Ika National Hall, Dr Okowa made a passionate appeal to the people of Ika nation to forgive the Delta North Senatorial candidate of the party and vote for him at the forthcoming 28 March 2015 polls.

“Forgive Nwaoboshi because of me, if you love me, please vote for Nwaoboshi. It will be a shame and might affect me if as the governorship candidate of my party; I cannot lead my party in my own senatorial zone to victory. If you all know how Anioma wanted to come this far in the state, we must work together as one to achieve the goal,” he said.

“Nwaoboshi may have offended people just like I may have offended a few too, but as it is now, it is Anioma’s general interest that matters most. I beg of you to please forgive him because of me and the Anioma interest.”

ANGRY
Most Ika people who were present at the Campaign rally are too angry with Nwaoboshi to take Okowa’s plea seriously. Xclusive Magazine gathered that their anger is the result of the ill-mannered way Nwaoboshi treated the same Okowa who is now helping him to solicit for votes.

“Where was Nwaoboshi when Okowa ran for Senate in 2011? He was the PDP chairman then and attempted to use the influence of his official position to impose Mrs Marian Amaka Alli. It was this same Ochei being maligned that fought for Okowa to become senator. How can Okowa forget so soon?”

Investigations reveal that the animosity against Nwaoboshi was deepened by what they term as the “evil and criminal way” he treated some of the Anioma indigenes during the PDP chairmanship and Council primary elections. A reliable source told Xclusive Magazine that Ika people are not particularly happy that those aspirants were compelled to pay huge amount of money to obtain registration forms only to be discarded with careless abandon, and their money was never refunded to them.

“These elections will be payback time for Nwaoboshi. We will use it to make him vomit all the money he collected from innocent aspirants under false pretense by making sure that he doesn’t get our votes,” said one of the aggrieved parties.

THREAT
Xclusive Magazine gathered that some Anioma youths are incensed by Okowa’s entreaties and have taken to the social media to express their disappointment with Dr Okowa for meddling in the race for senate between two Anioma sons. They have even threaten to work against Ekwueme, as Okowa is fondly called, if he does not desist from attacking or rubbishing one senatorial candidate over the other.

As a gubernatorial candidate, they argue, Okowa is first and foremost an Anioma son before being a PDP member. For that reason, he (Okowa) should see himself as the father of Anioma politics and create a level playing field for all Anioma candidates irrespective of party platform or affiliation.

The March 28 senatorial elections, notes Austen Silver in his post on Facebook, is about “credibility not political party,” and about making “a choice, not a mandate.” And Akamesike Manuel O’coney insists that using Okowa to ask for forgiveness and not wanting to openly do so himself smacks of arrogance and hypocrisy on Nwaoboshi’s part, which is “unacceptable.”

But it is AttohAzeh Victor who captures effectively the general mood of Anioma people in his advice to Okowa, given on Facebook:

“My advice to Okowa is for him to be wise and face his business. Election is almost close, he should not let ppl get angry with him and vote for another candidate. This will serve as a lesson to pdp in case of nxt time to always give the ppl a better choice. Ochei is bad. Nwaoboshi is bad, but out of two evil u choose one. Ochei is better.”

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