Okowa Tears Delta PDP Apart

All is not well right now with the Delta State Chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). XCLUSIVE MAGAZINE can report authoritatively. We understand the division in Delta State PDP is caused by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, who insisted and indeed handpicked nearly all the Local Government Area (LGA) PDP Chairmen and ward representatives in the just concluded Party Ward and LGA congresses.

XCLUSIVE MAGAZINE reliably gathered from highly placed State PDP sources that many PDP bigwigs view Okowa’s political tactics and leadership as machiavellian, tribalistic and disruptive, and that these were some of the reasons many party statutory delegates shunned the Delta State PDP Congress held yesterday.

Conspicuously absent from the Congress in which Barrister Kingsley Esiso was elected unopposed as the Party State chairman were the immediate past governor of the State Dr Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, his deputy, Prof. Amos Agbe Utuama, Chief Ighoyota Amori, Hon Ned Nwoko, Mrs Nneamaka Ali, among others.

A source very close to Okowa told XCLUSIVE MAGAZINE that Prof. Utuama’s absence was what shocked Okowa the most. The source revealed that in a recent PDP caucus meeting it was the former Deputy Governor that suggested the State Party should not hold 2019 governorship primary when the time comes, but to adopt Okowa as the sole candidate. Prof Utuama was aggressively shouted down, especially by some politicians from the Delta Central Senatorial District. Now it is being whispered within Okowa’s camp that Prof. Utuama might have been forced to join forces with his principal, Uduaghan, to fight Okowa.

Another source very close to Okowa also told XCLUSIVE MAGAZINE that Okowa’s overbearing influence in the State politics has further strained his already fragile political relationship with Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, who as the State PDP Chairman played the Alpha and Omega role, but now appears to have been completely sidelined and losing his political force in the State.

One source dismissed the hi-fiving and back-patting openly displayed by the Gov and the senator at the burial ceremony of the Nwaoboshi Senior as “a show for the camera.”

“There is a deep-seethed power struggle between Okowa and Nwaoboshi for the control of the heart and soul of Delta State PDP, particularly Delta North Senatorial District. At the moment, Okowa is moving like a bulldozer without break and Nwaoboshi is not happy about it,” said the insider source.

This may explain why it appeared to political observers that Nwaoboshi didn’t show much interest in who emerges as the State PDP Chairman. He merely watched events unfold from the sidelines.