Delt Central Senatorial Contest 2019: Stop Using Okowa's Name To Campaign.......Group Tells Oboro

A political group in oil rich Delta state has lashed out at Evelyn Oboro, member of the Federal House of Representatives seeking to contest the Senatorial ticket on the platform of the People's Democratic Party, PDP.


The group also warned the aspirant to stop using the name of Governor Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa to campaign for her choice aspirant running for the Uvwie seat in Delta state House of Assembly 2019 elections.

The Group, under the aegis of the Uvwie Grassroots Movement, UGM has insisted that all aspirants must be allowed to participate on a level playing field vying for the position.

The UGM warned against the use of the name of the Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, by the member representing Okpe/Sapele/Uvwie federal constituency, Hon. Evelyn Oboro, to wood wink the gullible minds in Uvwie constituency into relieving that her preferred aspirant for the constituency seat in the Delta State House of Assembly come 2019, Hon. Solomon Ighrakpata, is the Governor’s anointed candidate for the position.

Rising from a meeting in Effurun on Monday, the UGM in a statement signed by the Chairman, Comrade Felix Uvwiekoro, said the alleged name dropping of the governor by Hon. Oboro, when Hon. Ighrakpata who is aspiring for the Uvwie constituency seat consulted her, is against modern democratic tenets and a deliberate attempt to market to the Uvwie people, an unpopular aspirant to represent them in the State Assembly come 2019.

“We take serious exception to the statement credited to her to the effect that, Hon. Solomon Ighrakpata is the Governor Okowa and Asaba chosen candidate for the 2019 Uvwie constituency seat in the Delta State House of Assembly".

"Other aspirants in the race with him will continue with government appointments in the second tenure of the governor", the group stated.

The UGM urged the leaderships of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at the State and local government to be wary of this dangerous trend by the federal lawmaker to manipulate the forthcoming party primaries to impose her choice aspirant on the Uvwie PDP.

"The PDP in Delta State should not forget in a hurry how this same federal lawmaker in 2015 boasted after a free, fair and credible primaries of the party that produced the current serving member representing Uvwie constituency in Delta State House of Assembly, went to Abuja to substitute his name for someone else leading to the failure of the party in the general elections for the position".

The UGM called on the State Chairman of the party, Olorogun Kingsley Esiso, to take urgent steps to nip in the bud deliberate plans by the federal lawmaker to gag the local government and ward executives in Uvwie to support her candidate in the party’s primaries warming that giving deaf ears to her undemocratic practice will spell doom for the party again in the 2019 general elections.

The group also used the opportunity to call on the State PDP Chairman to direct the Mr. Kelly Otuedor led executive of the party in Uvwie, to pull down the campaign billboard of Hon. Solomon Ighrakpata that is lying very visibly in front of the party’s secretariat, if his executive has not taken side on who should pick the party’s ticket for the position.

According to the body, “Hon. Evelyn Oboro, who has her own Senatorial aspiration to contend with, should be cautioned to retrace her steps from the path that would cause serious disaffection amongst the leaders and members of the PDP family in Uvwie which may snowball into poor showing of the party’s candidates for all positions in the 2019 polls. Political events of recent times have shown that Nigerians and indeed Deltans are now wiser and more politically conscious to resist through the ballots any attempt to impose on them candidates for elective positions.”

The UGM however expressed optimism that the leader of the PDP in Delta State, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and the State Chairman, Olorogun Kingsley Esiso will not renege on their promise to ensure that all the party’s aspirants for various positions are given a level playing field and that the primaries will be free, fair and credible.

“Governor Okowa is a product of fair and transparent PDP governorship primaries of 2015 in Delta State and has equally midwifed two very fair and successful primaries of the party that produced the incumbent National Chairman of the PDP, Pince Uche Secondus and the party’s flag bearer in the July 14, 2018, governorship elections in Ekiti State. We therefore advised strongly that the party in the State should not derail from this path of honour and victory as it prepares to continue to dominate the political space of Delta State beyond 2019.”