One of the fragrances of political party internal democracy is the opportunity of party faithful to freely determine who bears their flag in any election. Each bloc within the party strives through lobby and other political overtures to secure the party’s ticket whether by consensus or actual voting but only one will succeed at a time eventually.
The Isoko North People’s Democratic Party selection process for the April 11 by-election for the state house of assembly which eventually produced Hon. Jude Ogbimi as the consensus candidate was no different. In fact, it was a fierce, rigorous and energy-consuming process.
As should have been the case, once a candidate emerges, all blocs collapse into one formidable unit to ensure victory for the party. Sadly, this was not to be in this instance, rather, several anti-party schemes and machinations were hatched to thwart the collective interest of our party.
But for the firm leadership role of our leader and governor, His Excellency, Sen. (Dr) Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, the evil agenda of a select few against the progress of the party would have come to fruition.
However, these evil plotters, chiefly Hon. Godwin Ogorugba and Hon. Mike Ogwah, did not hide their intentions to truncate the victory of the party at the polls through the tribunal. Their first move, which has since been exposed, was to form an alliance with Allied Peoples Movement (APM), a party whose candidate was nowhere near the top five in the final election result as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, to challenge Hon. Ogbimi’s victory at the tribunal.
Certainly not working alone, it has since been confirmed how Mike Ogwah held a closed-door meeting with the National Chairman of the APM, entreating him to allow his party to challenge the PDP’s victory at the tribunal with a promise to bankroll the court process. They had attempted to prompt the All Progressive Congress to tow the same path but without success.
Of course, the plot was hatched and the matter was at the tribunal but thank God their expectations were dashed. To date, the lsoko north party chairman, Mr Ogorugba who kept muted trumpet while the case lasted, is yet to make any public display of concern, at least to pretend that his hands are clean.
Although we have continued to resist the temptation to believe that the duo has found comfortable allies within the rank and file of the party executives at the state level, we are curiously concerned that no decisive action has been taken against these people or at least to stem the tide of their inimical activities to the peace and stability of the party at the local government level by the state despite the availability of overwhelming evidence.
We also will shun the idea that the state chairman, Hon. Kingsley Esso is allegedly on the payroll of one of the chief sponsors of the existing fracas in the party at the local government level and therefore urge him to do the needful in line with his responsibilities to reposition our party in Isoko north which is in dire need of decency and decorum as we look ahead to the 2023 elections.
Nero Emona, Director of Media & Publicity, Isoko For All Group
