The governorship bid of Delta Central Senatorial District for 2023 has received a boost with a first-class traditional ruler in the state, the Asagba of Asaba, Obi Chike Edozien, declaring his ‘belief and support’ for the rotation of the governorship seat on a Senatorial District basis.
The Asaba monarch, a nonagenarian, made the declaration at his palace on Tuesday, when members of the Delta Collective Assembly, DCA, a political pressure group paid him a visit.
He told the group that although the rotation of Delta State governorship seat started by accident, it has brought peace and unity to the state.
The revered monarch explained that towards the end of the administration of former Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, who is from Delta South Senatorial District, he and some leaders from Delta North Senatorial District visited traditional rulers in other parts of the State to lobby for their support to enable Delta North to produce Dr Uduaghan’s successor for fairness and equity, to which they all agreed.
The Asagba, a professor of medicine said the traditional rulers kept to their promise and supported Delta North which led to the emergence of the present Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa from Delta North.
He, however, noted that politicians almost thwarted that agreement as some of them from other Districts contested the primaries.
He urged politicians to comply with the rotation of the Governorship seat as it is in order to sustain the prevailing peace and unity in the state and commended the Delta Collective Assembly DCA for its efforts towards drumming support for the rotational practice.
Earlier, the convener of the Delta Collective Assembly, DCA, Engr. Elijah Ologe told the Asagba of Asaba and his Chiefs that the DCA is a political pressure group within the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, with the aim of drumming support for the sustenance of the clockwise rotation of Delta State Governorship seat.
Engr. Ologe a former chairman of SUBEB, said there was an arrangement by default or deliberate design by PDP leaders in the state for the clockwise rotation of the Governorship seat on a Senatorial District basis.
He noted that since 1999, the party had kept to that seamless power rotation arrangement and as such, it is the turn of Delta Central Senatorial District in 2023.
He, however, expressed surprise that some Ijaws from Delta South are agitating that it is their turn in 2023.
Engr. Ologe who hails from Patani LGA in Delta South said such agitation is not just and fair and does not promote equity, as it will amount to short-changing Delta Central where the rotation started from and has waited for sixteen years for the position to return to it.
He noted that such agitation was capable of destroying the peace and unity of the State and also negates the recent comments of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa that; ” PDP governorship candidate for 2023 would be chosen by leaders of the party based on what is just, fair and equitable”.
Engr. Ologe stressed that fair play and equity demand total support for Delta Central to produce the party’s candidate in 2023 after which Delta South will take its turn in eight years time. According to him, anything short of that will amount to Delta Central waiting for twenty-four years, a situation he described as “political injustice”.
He appealed to Obi Chike Edozien to use his Royal position and influence to prevail on traditional rulers and political leaders in the State to adhere strictly to the clockwise rotation of the governorship seat.
Other members of the DCA drawn from the twenty-five LGAs of the State solicited for the support of the Monarch for Delta Central Senatorial District to produce the next Governor in 2023, noting that the group is only interested in the peace and unity of the State, and not in support of any governorship aspirant.
A delegation of the DCA had earlier visited the Owhorode of Olomu Kingdom, Ogbon Ogoni-Oghoro the First, a traditional ruler from Delta Central, and Pastor Godsday Orubebe, a PDP stalwart and former Minister from Delta South Senatorial District, on the same issue.
