By Emma Amaize
WARRI — THE temporal ceasefire between Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State and South-South leader,  Chief Edwin Clark’s  faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state, broke down, weekend, with the elder statesman’s faction,  claiming that the governor’s group was frustrating the reconciliation and harmonization process.

But Uduaghan, in a sharp reaction told Vanguard, yesterday: “I will not do anything that will upset the peace process in PDP in the state. There is no problem between me and Chief Clark, we have resolved and the process is on, it has not broken down as you (reporter) said they have told you.”

At the centre of the fresh controversy is the recently held ward congress in which the Clark faction complained that they were completely schemed out, while the governor’s faction argued otherwise.

At a meeting in Warri, Saturday, attended by core leaders of the  Clark group, including a former Minister of State for Information, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi; chairman of the Delta State Elders, Leaders and Stakeholders Forum, Chief Godwin Ogbetuo; former Secretary to the Government of Delta State, Sir Simeon Efeludu, the Clark group declared that some persons “hijacked the reconciliation and harmonisation process to promote personal political interest above Chief Clark’s traditional supporters.”

Clark himself is on holiday abroad, but he is being fed with the day-to-day activities in the state and from London, yesterday, he spoke to Gbagi and Ogbetuo on his position  before the meeting commenced.

People are feeding Clark with lies — Uduaghan

Uduaghan, however, said those fanning the embers of discord were mainly members of the Clark group from the rival Democratic People’s Party, DPP, who have pitched tent with PDP.

His words: “These are mainly people from the E.K Clark group, who are not in PDP,  but Democratic Peoples Party, DPP, and have refused to join the PDP properly.”

He singled out Chief Ogbetuo, whom he said was always sitting by the DPP gubernatorial candidate, Chief Great Ogboru, throughout the campaign, adding: “He never attended any of the PDP leaders’ meeting held in Asaba and Warri.

“The agreement was for everyone to go for his or her ward for the ward congress. They refused to go. Instead, they kept calling Chief E.K. Clark, who is in the United Kingdom and feeding him with lies.

“The minister (Orubebe) and I, to the knowledge of the national secretariat, have been deeply involved in bringing normalcy to the party and these non-party members cannot derail us.”

Nothing to show Uduaghan  means well — Gbagi

But Olorogun Gbagi fired back at the governor at the meeting, saying, there was nothing on ground to suggest that his group was interested in a genuine reconciliation and harmonisation.

He said the resolution about reconciliation and harmonisation of Clark and Uduaghan factions of the PDP in the state came at one of the meetings in Abuja, held in Clark’s bedroom, wherein it was agreed, but with a proviso that “nobody should be treated as a lesser partner in the relationship or treated wrongly.”

He said subsequently, Uduaghan called a meeting at Asaba to kick-start the harmonisation and as fallout of the Clark faction meeting in Abuja. Gbagi was appointed as the coordinator for Delta Central Senatorial District; Elder Orubebe, Delta South Senatorial District and Dr. Cairo Ojuigboh,Delta North Senatorial District.

He said Uduaghan personally called him and the deputy governor, Prof. Amos Utuama at the Asaba meeting and urged them to work together to avert trouble in the Central Senatorial district, adding that his efforts to get the deputy governor to harmonise the interest of both factions, 50-50, as agreed, have not yielded result.

Gbagi said he alerted the governor of the evasive tactics of his deputy, but the sum total of it all was that the governor’s faction was playing pranks.

I was taken aback

He said he was taken aback when he called Uduaghan to notify him that the deputy governor was not being faithful to the agreement, only to hear that the state chairman of the party, Chief Peter Nwaoboshi, Mr. Sam Osasa and  the state’s Commissioner on the Niger-Delta Development Commission, NDDC, board, Chief Solomon Ogba, had been selected to liaise with the national leadership of the party to harmonise the list from Delta list.

“According to him, “it is then it dawned on me that some people are playing on our intelligence. How can they be talking about harmonising list when we that are coordinators from our senatorial district are not aware of what is to be harmonized. In the first instance, I asked the governor, how can three persons be going to Abuja to harmonize matters without an Urhobo person in the team, this is wrong”.

He said Nwaoboshi called him to inform him that with the way things were going, he (Nwaoboshi) does not want further trouble in the party.

At the moment, Gbagi said Chief Clark was not ready to speak to Governor Uduaghan, but had spoken to Chief Nwaoboshi.

Clark dissociates self

He said the elder statesmen called him before the meeting commenced to state that he was dissociating himself from all the moves by the Uduaghan faction to belittle his group till date.

Gbagi said as far as the Clark’s group was concerned, no proper ward congress has been held in the state and they were going to protest to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

“Enough is enough of this whole idea of deceit. Clark had told me that we cannot play a second fiddle, we need to do proper ward congress”, he said.

Chief Ogbetuo, at whose residence the meeting was held, said Chief Clark also spoke to him and told him that what was going on in the name of reconciliation and harmonisation was a charade and he was going to fight like a wounded lion.

In the meantime, he said the elder statesman had directed all leaders of the party at the ward and local government levels to submit list of members for the various positions to the senatorial leadership for appropriate action when he returns.

Ogbetuo said the list should be submitted on or before March 15 as Clark was expected to return home by end of this week, adding: “The issue of reconciliation is a complete failure in Delta Central Senatorial district, it is like committing a treasonable felony in a democracy. What we met on ground was capital disappointment. It was as if no message had been passed to them that we are reconciling. Throughout Delta Central, there is no compliance with the directive.”

Given a report at the meeting, a member of the group, Mr. Igweki from the Delta central senatorial district said when he went to the former Minister of Information, Prof Sam Oyovbaire, as a member of Clark’s group for harmonization and reconciliation, “he said.

According to him, “The issue of harmonization ended in the newspaper, the harmonization itself is a complete failure, and they are playing tricks”. Sunday Vanguard could not reach Prof Oyovbaire, yesterday, for comments

Pastor Enuenweusu from Ndokwa West local government in Delta North senatorial district stated, “The experience we got as members of Clark faction in Delta North on harmonization is appalling, disappointing and a total failure. When you go to an examination and score 10 per cent over 100 per cent ,  it is a total  failure. Only in one to two wards that there was harmonization, in the rest, we discovered that there was a fifth columnist in Delta North”.

He, however, admitted that from his findings, the fifth columnist denied both the government and Clark group of forms and materials for the congress, adding, “In Delta North, the materials and papers were hijacked by one Osasa”.

Pastor Enuenweusu blamed the crisis on lack of communication, saying that PDP panel that came to Delta North gave materials to neither the Clark nor Uduaghan side.

He said both ward and local government congress, scheduled to have taken place, yesterday, in the senatorial district was a charade.

But the state Commissioner for Housing, Chief Paulinus Akpeki told Sunday Vanguard at about 3.00 pm, yesterday, that the local government congress was peacefully going on in Sapele, adding, “We are in unity here, we don’t know anything about Uduaghan and Clark faction here, we are one PDP”.

Commissioner for Information, Chike Ogeah Esq. also told Sunday Vanguard that whatever was happening was an insignificant hiccup that would be resolved in due course.

However, Isa Clark Esq, who fingered Elder Orubebe urged the elder statesman to summon the Niger-Delta minister and Governor Uduaghan to find out what was amidst, saying, he had confronted the minister and could not apprehend his game plan.

He said that the Niger-Delta minister was not carrying members of the Clark faction along in his assignment, pointing out, “If he has good intention to reconcile, there must be reconciliation and harmonization, but speaking for Burutu local government, I can tell you there is no reconciliation and harmonization there”.

His words, “Orubebe is making Clark to think that he is working for him, but I don’t think so, so let us   (members of the faction) remove the wool from Clark’s eye”.

After deliberations on the harmonization process and the ward congresses as it affected Delta state, the Clark group, unanimously called on the national leadership of the party to reject any purported cooked result that may emerge from the state and also called on INEC to reject the last ward congress as a shame to democratic growth.

They passed a vote of confidence in Chief Clark and President Jonathan, saying both of them meant well for party and urged Governor Uduaghan to steer the party from crisis and restore the unity, peace, comradeship that once prevailed in the party before 2007 crisis.