THE Delta Central senatorial bye-election, initially fixed for this weekend, but now postponed to Saturday, October 12, to fill the vacant position created by the unexpected death of Senator Pius Ewherido,  means different things to the political parties currently jostling to enthrone their candidates in the chiefly Urhobo senatorial district of Delta state.

Until his death on June 30, the last occupant of the seat, late Ewherido, a former acting speaker and deputy speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, was the only Democratic Peoples Party, DPP, senator.

*National Organizing Secretary of APC , Senator Osita Izunaso (left) declaring Olorogun O’tega Emerhor winner of the APC primaries in Ughelli

His victory  in  the 2011 general elections was a protest against  his former party, the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP, which he felt, underestimated or did not adequately compensate him after the primaries that saw Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan emerge as the gubernatorial candidate for the PDP in 2007 gubernatorial elections.

Though, Governor Uduaghan, a personal friend of the deceased visited him in his country home and did everything to resolve the ill feelings, it still did not stop Ewherido from decamping to the DPP.  But they remained friends and Uduaghan, who was among those making arrangement to fly him abroad for further treatment, was by his bedside at the National Hospital, Abuja, where he died.

Under the DPP, which had the party’s gubernatorial candidate, Chief Great Ogboru, as its  game changer, Ewherido defeated PDP’s candidate for the election, Chief Ighoyota Amori.

Chief Amori is a political titan in Delta Central senatorial district and whilst Ewherido and others were campaigning for governorship primaries in 2006 under the platform of PDP, he was like their “political leader”.

Many did not see why Amori should have contested against Ewherido but that battle and Amori’s defeat upped Ewherido’s political profile.

PDP fights for missing glory

Since PDP, which produced Ewherido’s predecessor, lost the seat in 2011, ostensibly due to internal infighting and “revolt” against the party in the district, it had not forgiven its tacticians and to a large extent, sees the October 12 senatorial bye-election as the right time for the party to make a definite political statement regarding Delta Central.

The party has practically assembled a 16-man “war” team  named campaign council, headed by former Minister of Information, Prof Sam Oyovbaire, to prosecute the battle.

In the council are Chief Fred Majemite as secretary, ex-Minister of State for Education, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, PDP leader in the district, Chief Tom Amioku, Obarisi Ovie Omo-Agege, Chief Emmanuel Ighomena, Chief Arthur Akpowowo, Chief Grace Oddiri, Hon Evelyn Oboro, Chief Sunny Emeyese, Chief Monday Igbuya, Chief Kenneth Okpara, Mr. Christian Onogba, Mr Raymond Edijalah, Mrs Beauty Anidi and Chief Malachi Orode.

The party seemed to have discovered what made it lose the senatorial seat in 2011 and was determined to block the leakage and is reaching out to the electorate canvassing for votes.

DPP wants to retain mandate

The DPP does not, however, find the PDP move amusing, as it views Delta Central as its “captured” and “sealed” territory. One of the points the DPP had tried to assert conspicuously in the last few elections in the district, particularly under the Uduaghan reign, is that Delta Central belongs to it.

It is a medal Chief Ogboru does not want to relinquish and for the October 12 bye-election, the party, thinks the other parties should steer clear.

For the DPP, it is a battle to retain and reclaim its mandate, which has not been completed with the death of Ewherido.

With the recent merger of some opposition   parties to form All Progressives Congress, APC, and exit of some of the party’s chieftains in the state (the late Ewherido was part of the APC train), some political observers said DPP was dead in the state.

With the registration of the APC, the structure of the DPP has been fragmented in  Delta Central due to the movement of some of its members to the new party and this, no doubt, will tell on the fortune of the DPP in the bye-election.

But, Ogboru and other DPP leaders, at a retreat, August, in Abraka, denied the party was dead in the state, maintaining that the vacuum left by Ewherido would be filled with a credible candidate from the party and that it had a formidable structure on ground to win the election, and checkmate the alleged antics the PDP had been adopting to rig elections in the state since 2003.

Time for progressives to take over — APC

Former National Secretary of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers- (NUPENG), Chief Frank Ovie Kokori, a one-time DPP chieftain in the state is one of those who believe the newly registered APC must make a statement in Delta state with the October 12 Delta Central Senatorial bye-election.

Rightful position

His wish summarizes the opinion of the average APC member, who sees the bye-election as an opportunity for the ‘real’ progressives to take their rightful position in the state. To some APC members, DPP had outlived its usefulness in the state, while the PDP is the ‘enemy’ that must be crushed.

APC supposes it is the only truly progressives’ party in the country at the moment and, therefore, all progressive-minded persons, particularly in Delta Central senatorial district, should support the party to vote out the “usurpers” on October 12.

Matter of pride for LP

The Labour Party, LP, has neither won election in Delta Central nor in any part of Delta state since the current political dispensation, but that has not deterred it from raising its head in the up-coming contest for who represents the district in the bye-election and has picked the former secretary of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, Chief Andrew Osawota as its flag bearer.

It was learnt that the contest is a matter of pride for the party, which would have provided a legitimate platform for its candidate, Barrister Andrew Osawota.