Former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, has advised leaders of the party in Delta State not to take decisions and make utterances that could jeopardise the party’s chances of winning the 2023 general elections.
Orubebe, a notable chieftain of the PDP gave the advice when he played host to a delegation of the Delta Collective Assembly, DCA, in his country home in Ogbobagbene town, Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State.
DCA is a political pressure group with the mandate to consolidate the existing peace and unity in Delta State PDP, ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Orubebe cautioned the PDP family in Delta to handle the controversy surrounding the choice of the next Governor with care so as not to lose the 2023 governorship and other elections in the state.
While commending the Delta Collective Assembly, DCA for its mission to consolidate the existing peace and unity in the PDP and Delta State in general, the former Minister recalled his advocacy in 2014 for the PDP governorship to be rotated from one ethnic group to another but he was vehemently opposed by some leaders from Delta South and Delta Central Senatorial Districts.
According to him, the leaders insisted that it was the turn of Delta North.
The outspoken politician and staunch ally of former President Goodluck Jonathern then queried at what point and in which meeting was the senatorial rotation arrangement changed or abandoned.
He advised Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, who is a beneficiary of the Senatorial zoning arrangement of the PDP, to handle the 2023 governorship issue with utmost care and maturity, adding that for the party to succeed, all hands must be on deck.
Elder Orubebe charged the Delta Collective Assembly to sustain the spread of its message of consolidating peace and unity to all parts of the State and promised that when the time is right, he would talk and make his position known, especially after consulting with other elders and leaders of the PDP.
Earlier, the delegation of the Delta Collective Assembly led by Engr. Elijah Ologe told Elder Godsday Orubebe that the pressure group was formed with the core mandate to sustain the peaceful clockwise senatorial zoning pattern that had given the PDP overwhelming victories in all Delta State political elections over the years. He advised that, on that basis, the PDP governorship in 2023 should come from Delta Central Senatorial District.
Ologe, a former Chairman of the Delta State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, who spoke on behalf of the group, said the mission of the DCA includes consulting notable PDP stakeholders in the three senatorial districts such as Elder Godsday Orubebe towards ensuring that the Delta State PDP continues to utilize the clockwise governorship zoning arrangement that had always guaranteed landslide victories for the party in past elections.
He said the DCA whose membership cuts across the three Senatorial Districts of the State, is an opinion influencer mobilizing support for the practice of senatorial zoning which evolved by default or deliberate design and has remained the PDP’s magic wand for winning all elections in Delta State.
The DCA thanked Elder Godsday Orubebe for the audience and for his words of wisdom and expressed the belief that his final stand on the growing controversial governorship issue would be in the best interest of the PDP, ahead of the 2023 general elections.
