Delta State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic (PDP) is presently like a pregnant woman that doesn’t know the actual day the baby in her womb would come forth.
Peace is currently on holiday as it had taken a flight from the party since the party’s governorship primary election few months ago, which declared Sherrif Oborevwori as the governorship candidate of the party for the 2023 general election.
The outcome of the election has polarised the party to the extent that it affected the celebration of the state’s 31years anniversary which held on Saturday, August 27.
For the past seven years of Okowa’s administration, the state government used to mark the anniversary with series of events but this year, they only went to the Government House Chapel, Asaba, in a very low key and thanked God for His goodness upon the people of the state while praying for His intervention in the state and nation.
While Okowa was in far away Abuja for the PDP national activities, his deputy, Kingsley Otuaro was in charge. Oborevwori’s group was also in attendance but aggrieved members of the party, like David Edebvie and some other prominent members of the party were conspicuously missing.
In the past, such occasion used to feature who is who in the state, especially in the state chapter of the ruling PDP but this time around, things have turned upside down as the party was already polarised into the Edebvie and Oborevwori camps.
The anniversary this time around entered into a inauspicious time when Edebvie and Oborevwori were in court over the gubernatorial ticket.
So, they played cool as they waited for the Court of Appeal’s position on the matter Oborevwori brought before it, seeking to upturn the verdict of the lower court which nullified his governorship candidacy of the party in the state.
Appeal Court restores Oborevwori’s candidacy
It came as a shock to many when the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja, last week, set aside the judgment of a Federal High Court, Abuja and restored Oborevwori’s candidacy of the Delta PDP.
Edebvie and his group expressed shock over the judgment but vowed to take the matter to the Supreme Court. Edebvie was a commissioner for finance during Okowa’s first tenure and later Chief of Staff in the second tenure, same period Oborevwori held sway as the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly till date.
Edebvie had alleged that Oborevwori forged the academic certificates he presented to contest the guber contest. He had told the lower court to declare him the authentic guber candidate amongst other requests.
The court then ruled in his favour and ordered Oborevwori to stop parading himself as the authentic guber candidate.
While Edebvie was waiting to take over from Oborevwori, a stay of execution order was issued by the Appeal Court pending when the outcome of the matter brought before the appellate court by Oborevwori.
The Appeal Court’s verdict:
The court ruled that allegations of fraud such as fake documents cannot be resolved by originating
Summon. It also stated that case of forgery cannot be decided by affidavit evidence. The court also held that the suit ought to have been commenced by writ of summons and not originating summons and that since the matter was founded on presentation of forged documents, it will require calling of witnesses
It also held that the cause of action of David has not crytsalise for the court to assume jurisdiction. Originating summon was wrongly done and that lower court had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
Issue resolved in favour of the appellant as Edevbie’s case was not ripe because Sheriff’s name has not been sent to INEC
The court further held the right of David to approach the court can only accrue when INEC publishes the personal particulars of Sheriff.
The court held that the Federal Court misconstrued the provisions of Section 29 of the Electoral Act. The reasoning of the Federal High on the interpretation of Section 29 is erroneous; the judgment of the learned trial court is erroneous and is null and void as it was done without jurisdiction.
God gives power and nobody can upturn – Oborevwori
At a thanksgiving service to celebrate the victory, Oborevwori who is also the Speaker of the State legislature, said he had come to the chapel to appreciate God for giving him victory.
He said that the Almighty God gave him the victory at the appellate court. “God gives power and nobody can upturn what God has ordained,” he said, expressing the optimism that by God’s grace they would gather again at the Government House Chapel in 2023 to celebrate and thank God.
He said that the victory was for every Deltan as his agenda was to do more for the people of the state, from where the incumbent Governor Okowa would stop at the end of his eight-year tenure.
“When we came to the chapel to celebrate the 31st anniversary of the creation of Delta State last Saturday, I promised God that if He gives me victory at the Appeal Court, l shall come to the chapel to give thanks to Him,” he added.
The PDP gubernatorial candidate expressed profound appreciation to the governor’s wife for her strong support through prayers and for being solidly behind her husband.
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Edebvie fights on
At an enlarged meeting of the Edebvie’s campaign organisation and various focus and volunteer groups including the Delta Unity Group and Edevbie Movement’23 which had various PDP stalwarts and David Edevbie supporters from the 25 Local Government Areas of the state in attendance, the organisation assured its supporters that it would be heading to the Supreme Court to receive justice.
Karo Ilolo, a former Delta State Commissioner for Urban Renewal and a strong supporter of Edebvie, said the meeting was to reassure Deltans that hope was not lost in their dream for modernised and more prosperous state under the leadership of David Edevbie.
“What the appellate court did was a miscarriage of justice, but we will recover our mandate at the Supreme Court,” Ilolo told the mammoth crowd.
An umbrella in shreds
Right from the inception of democracy in 1999, Delta State has remained a PDP state and the members boast of this, saying it would continue to be so.
Each time people decamp from other parties to PDP, they would be told that party’s umbrella is so wide to accommodate them.
Today, however, the PDP umbrella is seen to be in tatters courtesy of the internal wrangling and bickering occasioned by the primary election held.
The fight between Edebvie and Oborevwori is seen as the fight between James Ibori and Ifeanyi Okowa’.
Ibori, the former governor of the state (1999-2006) is believed to be supporting Edebvie while Oborevwori is being backed by the Okowa, the incumbent governor of the state.
‘Oborevwori is the weakest link in 2023 guber election in Delta’
The opposition All Progressives Congress seems to be excited over the absence of peace in the PDP.
The Delta APC Gubernatorial Campaign Organisation while reacting to the Appeal Court ruling said it was a welcome development just as it described Oborevwori as the weakest link in the 2023 governorship election in the state.
The campaign council described Oborevwori as a weak and compromised candidate who will find it impossible to explain why Deltans should give him and his fellow travellers another opportunity to mortgage the future of the state with more humongous loans with nothing to show.
The opposition party called on Deltans to resist Oborevwori, PDP and Governor Ifeanyi Okowa with their ballots, insisting that the PDP Governorship candidate who could not run a House of Assembly, definitely cannot govern a complex state like Delta.
APC cannot win in 2023 despite PDP crisis – Aniagwu
Amidst the legal tussle in PDP and APC reactions, Charles Aniagwu, the state commissioner for information, said it would take a miracle for APC to win in the 2023 general election in the state. According to him, the APC gubernatorial candidate and deputy Senate president, has no hold on the state.
He said that Omo-Agege’s woes were compounded by the massive failure of the APC at the centre to deliver on economy, security and management of the nation’s diversity.
Aniagwu boasted that PDP was very strong and popular in the state despite the current legal tussle over the party’s guber candidacy.
He said that over the years the party had done quite well in the state having progressively won elections in all senatorial districts in the state.
Aniagwu further remarked that the chances of the APC had been further worsened by the very abysmal performance of the party at the national level especially in the area of the economy, education, security and their inability to manage our diversity which today is the greatest challenge in the country.
Apart from APC, there are other parties like the Social Democratic Party which has its guber candidate as Kenneth Gbagi who decamped from PDP alleging absence of level playing ground for all aspirants at the PDP guber primary. There is also the Labour Party amongst a few others which the PDP may not be afraid of.
Aniagwu foresees a united PDP winning at the 2023 polls
“One good thing about Edevbie’s case in court is that he’s not challenging the sanctity of the primary election that produced Sheriff Oborevwori as governorship candidate.
“He clearly admitted that the election was well conducted and that Oborevwori carried the day and what that tells you is that to a very large extent, the PDP in Delta was able to reason in one direction
“We believe that in the course of time he may either see reasons and decide not to proceed to the Supreme Court but even in the event that he proceeds to the Supreme Court, we will also not begrudge him because it is his right to so do.
“But at the end of the day the party will not just take part in the 2023 governorship election in Delta, but the party will work as one party to produce a governor that will preside over the affairs of Delta under platform of the PDP,” he said.
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