When Senator Ned Nwoko launched his attacks, mid last year, against Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, discerning minds knew that his intentions were far from being altruistic, that he was only disgruntled over personal issues and only preparing grounds for leaving the PDP.
It was obvious that, being unable to secure executive and delegate positions for his supporters in the PDP ward, local government and state congresses, which threatened his prospect of retaining the party’s ticket to return to the Senate, he immediately considered defecting to the APC.
While his propaganda team continued to make believe that he was all about the good of Anioma nation and Delta North Senatorial District, it became increasingly clear that his antics was merely about his political survival.
They tried so much to deny this motive with deceptive narratives of passion for the creation of Anioma State, fighting for the step down of Okpai Independent Power Plant and the rehabilitation of Ogwashi-Uku Dam, but deny as they did, alas, the hen has come to roost, and he has finally left the PDP and now headed for the APC, as suspected, putting paid to their needless denials and orchestrated media stunts.
It is now recognised that his objective for going over to the APC is simply and solely to pick the party’s Senatorial ticket, no more nor less.
Interestingly, standing at the gate of Delta North APC is Senator Peter Nwaoboshi. They both have an interesting political history between them and with the PDP.
Nwaoboshi had been State Chairman and two-time Senator, 2015 and 2019, under the PDP, before defecting to the APC.
Nwoko got his first cap as a member of the House of Representatives for Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency, 1999 to 2003, also under the PDP, but feeling made and possibly banking on tribal appeal, he defected to APGA in 2003 to contest for governorship against the sitting governor, James Ibori. He lost and subsequently returned to the PDP.
In 2011, he again left the PDP to DPP to contest for Senate, lost again, returned to the PDP, and left again to contest the Senate against Nwaoboshi in 2019.
That election and its aftermath were intriguing. Supported by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Nwaoboshi defeated Nwoko hands down, but banking on his legal background, Nwoko did everything to upturn the victory.
Nwaoboshi finally had the day at the Court of Appeal, but eventually not without the price of finding himself in prison, notwithstanding that he subsequently defected to the APC possibly in search of reprieve.
His defection led the PDP to settle for Nwoko as its Senatorial candidate in the 2023 election against Nwaoboshi, who contested from the prison, and the PDP won with Nwoko.
Today, less than two years after being supported against Nwaoboshi, Nwoko is going over again to the APC, just like Nwaoboshi did midway in his second term, to grab the ticket.
Nwaoboshi is believed to be uncomfortable with the entry of Nwoko into the APC, much worse gifting the Senatorial ticket on a platter to an old and sworn enemy.
Knowing this, Nwoko has decided to pitch tent with Festus Keyamo’s group, which seems to have the blessing of the national leadership of the party against the Ovie Omo-Agege group.
Their reasoning is that being the highest serving member of the party in government, Keyamo should be the leader of the party. The Omo-Agege group, to which Nwaoboshi belongs, would not have it, on the grounds that as a former Deputy President of the Senate, one time number five man of the country, and former Gubernatorial candidate of the party, he is most senior. They also argue that Keyamo is not on ground, essentially alien in Delta politics, and can not move a needle politically.
The battle rages on with the main plot of “Agege versus Keyamo” at the state level and the sub-plot of “Nwaoboshi versus Nwoko” at the Senatorial District level.
It was for this reason that the Agege group designed a tour of Delta North local governments and wards on the verge of Nwoko’s defection to the APC. The objective being to consolidate on their supporters and hold the ground before Nwoko’s entry, to ensure that he does not just stroll in from the PDP to pick the APC Senatorial ticket after all that Nwaoboshi has suffered.
It was also calculated to ensure that the members of the party are held tight and shielded from penetration by Keyamo, suspected to be nursing governorship ambition and hoping to just stroll in from Abuja to pick the party’s Gubernatorial ticket against Agege’s plan of re-contesting in 2027, after his woeful outing in 2023.
They are all driven by the illusion of receiving federal might and permitted electoral rascality.
Still, there is a third force in Delta North APC, the Rt Hon Victor Ochei, former Minority Leader under the UNPP, and later Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly under the PDP.
He reportedly had eyed succeeding former Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, but seeing that the Governor then favoured the late John Obuh, while the leadership of the party stood on Ifeanyi Okowa, he defected to the APC.
Securing neither the Governorship nor Senatorial ticket, he was rewarded with the appointment of Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage of NIMASA, and while Nwaoboshi was in prison, he funded and sustained the party in Delta North, even though its formidability remains ragtag.
He has been maintaining a studied quiet over the intrigues and shenanigans playing out in the Agege-Keyamo and Nwaoboshi-Nwoko plots.
Positioned as a conciliator, he has been calling for unity, but Agege and Nwaoboshi are digging in every day, while Keyamo and Nwoko are also scheming harder to outwit and outfox them. The indication is that there would be “no agreement today, no agreement tomorrow,” in Delta APC as Nwoko’s entry marks the very beginning of things fall apart.