By Ndu Samuel, Asaba

The governor of Delta State  Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa and the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP have been cautioned against fielding the current speaker of the state house of assembly Rt. Hon Sheriff Oborevwori as the party’s flag bearer in the 2023  governorship elections.

A group, Delta State Corncened PDP Leaders Forum gave the warning through a press statement signed by its publicity secretary Engr. Aruoture M. Efe and made available to the Liberator Newspapers Worldwide onWednesday.

They  described the choice  of Oborevwori as bad omen to the party

The group advised the party to avoid a replica of event that played out in Bayelsa state where Gov elect was disqualified because of discrepancies in the certificates his deputy presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The statement said, “Just on Thursday the 28th of April 2022 all the gubernatorial aspirants converged at the South South PDP Zonal Office for the screening and clearance  by the Governorship Screening Committee ably led by the Governor of Bayelsa State, HE (Senator) Douye Diri, of eligible aspirants for the upcoming PDP Gubernatorial Primary slated for the 21st of May 2022.”

“One of the governorship aspirants of Delta State was caught in a mind-boggling certificate scandal where the social, print/electronic media were agog with the rumour of name discrepancies in his various certificates from primary school up to masters level, thereby tinkling the consciousness of Party faithful and concern citizens of the State. The situation was so tensed that the political waters of the State boiled to the top with no response or comments from the affected aspirant or his followers so much so that his alleged certificates and different affidavits littered the social media space.”

“While every cleared aspirants were busy posting their clearance certificate to attest to the fact that they are cleared the said affected aspirant went mute so much so that doctored clearance certificates with tipest and others floored the social media to ridicule the said aspirant. Not until the early hours of Sunday the 1st of May 2022 that the affected aspirant was seen on social media where he was said to be attending Thanksgiving church service at the Living Faith Church, sermonizing his esoteric successful screening and clearance by the Committee to vie for the Party ticket.” 

“It is worthy to note here that rumour had it that the governor of Delta State has prevailed on his counterpart, HE (Senator) Douye Diri of Bayelsa State, who incidentally is the Chairman of the Screening Committee, to clear his anointed candidate. While all these remain rumour, it is said that there is no smoke without fire hence the very reason for this article.”

“One thing is certain, that every political party’s desire is to feature a candidate that will win the general elections for it and party delegates are instrumental to electing a candidate that will meet the need of its political party. It is always a great disappointment on the party and her deleguates to deliver a candidate with questions thereby leading to her defeat. This is the very essence of the screening and clearance for the suitability of the prospective candidate for the sole purpose of winning election. That means no political party will dare feature a candidate that will cost it of its victory at the poll or at election petition tribunal, when the eligibility of a candidate is called to question.”

“We all remember the immediate past gubernatorial election in Bayelsa State where the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate was declared winner of the election by INEC only for the the court to rule against the APC on the ground of name discrepancies of the credentials of the Deputy Governor-elect, Senator Degi, which automatically translated and interpreted to mean that APC did not feature a candidate leading to HE (Senator) Douye Diri been sworn-in as the winner of that election. We want to believe that same is an eye-opener for which PDP wouldn’t want to dare.”

The group said “It is our firm believe that anyone who disregard such misnomer as encapsulated above do not mean well for the PDP as such we are therefore calling on the PDP National Chairman, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and everyone, including Delta PDP delegates, that mean well for the PDP to prevail on those engaging in such obnoxious act to stop forthwith. This is because a blind eyes to this troubling happening will spell a serious disaster for the PDP come 2023 general election.”

“A stitch in time, they say, saves nine!” The statement added.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *