There was uneasy calm in the camp of the former Governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori at the Delta central senatorial district of the state and that of the former militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo, a.k.a Tompolo yesterday, following the unfruitful meeting between them over the successor of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.
This came as eight governorship aspirants were screened out by the DC-23, a group that was saddled with the responsibility of actualizing 2023 governorship for Delta central.
The aggrieved aspirants have since rejected the outcome of the screening and accused the group of usurping the function of the State Working Committee (SWC) of PDP.
The ex-militant leader maintained that since other zones of the state contested the past governorship elections in the state in previous years nothing would stop his kinsmen from contesting in 2023. He was said to have rejected Ibori’s offer and queried his faithfulness to the rotational arrangement of the governorship position in the state.
He allegedly challenged the former governor, who journeyed on a give-and-take move to him on the possibility of having the Delta Central to produce a successor in 2023, on any fast rule to any zone starting a fresh governorship rotation, if any in the state.
Tompolo, who threw his weight behind his kinsmen, urged Ibori to choose between Okowa’s deputy, Barr Kingsley Otuaro and Sen James Manager, from Delta South.
But this did not go down well with Ibori, who has a different mindset for his former Commissioner for Finance, Olorogun David Edevbie from Delta Central. The said selection of Manager as the preferred candidate of Ijaw nation has swept Ibori off his feet and triggered tension in political circle of the state that power may shift to Delta South, especially as Governor Okowa has since ruled out the zoning arrangement which Delta Central relied on.
(New Telegraph)
