The All Progressives Congress (APC), a major opposition political party in Delta State has declared war against the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) ahead the 2023 general elections in the country.
The party declared the war on Wednesday as it inaugurated the state executive council of the party led by Omeni Sobotie.
The party stalwarts and chieftains as well as the supporters were in attendance at the inauguration which held at the party secretariat located along Anwai Road in Asaba, the state capital.
Peter Nwaoboshi, the incumbent senator representing Delta North Senatorial District in the National Assembly, fired the first shot while Ovie Omo-Agege followed, as they charged the newly inaugurated state executive to hit the ground running.
From today, the battle has started. It is total war and I plead with all the party to support the party, Nwaoboshi declared. This was just as he threatened to expose PDP should the party play up its rigging tactics in 2023. PDP should stop wasting their time trying to produce a person who will succeed Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.
“Let me assure you that there is nothing they plan that we do not know. There is no rigging spot of PDP that I don’t know. They are sending rams and registering goats across the state now. On Election Day, I will see how these rams and goats will vote”, he asserted.
Nwaoboshi who defected from PDP to APC some months ago, denied the speculation that he is a spy in APC, saying that, “I have no intention of going back to PDP but I have the intention to defeat PDP in 2023 election.”
The senator who is a former PDP chairman in the state dismissed the rumour that he would return to PDP. He said he can never go back to his vomit, stressing that he can never go back to the PDP.
His words, “The battle for us now is to defeat PDP and chase them out of Delta State. I do not have intention of going back to PDP, but I have intention of defeating PDP in Delta State. The battle line has been drawn; we will not use arms but if need be, then we don’t have a choice.
“Let me tell you that this battle is for the next generation of politicians to benefit. I have played my part as a politician; I cannot be a Commissioner again, I cannot be an Adviser again, I cannot hold any political appointment or position again in Delta. However, I can be proud to be known as a friend of the Governor.
“That is why I am supporting Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, because he is the next Governor of Delta State. This is a man who has played a high wired politics as Secretary to Delta State Government and now the number five (5) citizen in the country. What else are we looking for in a Governor? He has it all and he knows it all.
“So my fellow party men, don’t let them deceive you, there is no secret of PDP we don’t know. There is no rigging plan in Delta State that I don’t know about or that Omo-Agege does not know. We are equal to them and this is just the end of the road for them. And that is why I congratulate my brother and friend, Chief Omeni Sobotie, a juggernaut of no mean repute, who has a task to guide us to victory in 2023,” Nwaoboshi said.
Read also: A/Ibom guber: Eno’s aspiration gains ground as more stakeholders lend support
Speaking, Ovie Omo-Agege, the Deputy Senate President (DSP) declared that the 2023 election would mark the exit of Okowa and his party. He cautioned the governor to stop scheming to produce who takes over from him.
The people of Delta state will determine who their next Governor will be. We have all the tricks of those in PDP. We are privy to it. Our goal is to defeat Okowa and anyone he attempts to impose on Delta.
“Okowa said he wants to go back to the Senate but God has withdrawn the seat of the Delta North from PDP to APC.
“We must heat the ground running. I know the battle you went through to get to this position, however, you must get ready to still fight to keep your victory by extending your hand of fellowship to others who didn’t support your emergence. We must put our differences aside to bring everybody on board, because the contest has come and gone, and this is new beginning,” he told the new exco.
“It is a battle this time; we must chase them out of Government House in 2023. There is no trick in the book they are privy to that we are not also privy to,” he said.
On those he defected from the party, Omo-Agege said: “I congratulate those who went to the PDP as a result of that kangaroo rally they did recently. Those are Ekans as referred to in the bible and we are glad to get rid of them. However, if they later repent and decide to come back, we will still forgive them and work with them.”
He tasked the party chairman to see those who contested with him as brothers and sisters who equally have the right to contest, calling on him to extend his olive branch to them just as he said those who decamped should be welcomed back when they “repents and returns to the party.”
On his part, the state chairman, Omeni Sobotie stated that he would deploy all available political mechanism at his disposal to gain victory for APC in the state.
He urged party supporters to be committed and go back to their wards to campaign as APC would produce the next President of Nigeria, Governor in Delta State and fill up other elective positions in the state in 2023.
He assured party faithful that indeed peace has returned to APC in Delta State, promising to leverage on the goodwill and mandate of his victory to reconcile every member for the task ahead.
Meanwhile, the Delta State PDP has hit hard on Senator Nwaoboshi, over his boast to defeat PDP in the state by any means possible, including violence, in the next general elections,
The party described the action as attention-seeking rabble, from a failed politician who knows he has nothing else to offer.
PDP in a statement signed by Ifeanyi Osuoza, the state publicity secretary, congratulated the newly sworn-in APC but reminded the Delta North Senator that his present mandate in the National Assembly, is by the grace of the PDP.
According to the party, “Nwaoboshi has since outlived his usefulness and had become an embarrassing liability, with his calculated and dubious anti-party actions and comments even long before he shamelessly decamped to the APC.”
