*Says LP is new vehicle to Promised Land

By Emma Amaize

Plan that went awry

THE permutations by the All Progressives Congress, APC, was that the party would win the senatorial bye election held in  Delta Central senatorial district , Delta state on October 12 , 2013,  if Chief Great Ogboru  joined forces with it to battle  the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.

Late Senator Pius Ewherido, whose untimely death created the opening that necessitated the bye-election in the first instance, secured the respected seat on the platform of Democratic People’s Party, DPP, which Chief Ogboru, two-time governorship candidate on its platform was the leader.

Strategists  calculation

APC did everything to make Chief Ogboru abandon at the eleventh hour the DPP candidate, Chief Ede Dafinone, who its strategists calculated did not have the political weight to halt PDP’s plan to consecrate the former managing director of the Niger-Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Chief Emmanuel Aguarivwodo.

They wanted Ogboru to switch his support in favour of APC’s candidate, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, but Ogboru refused to see reason. Aguariavwodo won.

APC leaders, including the national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had stormed Delta state to discuss the possibilities with Ogboru. It was, however, speculated that the failure of the APC negotiators to come straight on what is in the bargain for the leader in 2015 in the event of his agreeing to dance to the pendulum ruined the game plan.

An informed source, hinted, on the other hand, that Ogboru was committed to his party’s candidate, and therefore, his hands were tied as far as APC’s  deal to swap Emerhor for Dafinone was concerned.

APC tacticians had erroneously thought that Ogboru would fall for its coded plan without unambiguously stating the terms.  The thinking was that given the political equation at the time, it would aggregate to digging his political grave if he rejected the offer to team up with APC.

DPP as a faulty vehicle
With the overpowering of Dafinone in the bye-election, many, indeed, agree that any attempt by Ogboru to contest the governorship race again in the state would end in a more devastating note because it had become manifestly evident that DPP, as a political vehicle might not be able to carry him to Government House, Asaba.
Bolt from the blue

The ‘people’s general’ as Ogboru is called by his admirers,  was becoming a passing sensation in the gubernatorial calculations in the state ahead 2015 on account of  lack of viable platform, when he sprung a surprise, weekend, in Ozoro, Isoko North Local Government Area, the political territory of the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Ovuozorie Macaulay.

Apparently reading the mind of the people, Ogboru, who had been holding series of consultations lately, particularly after the newest Supreme Court verdict on his election case with incumbent Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, publicly announced the extinction of DPP at the country home of former Special Adviser to the Delta State Governor on Security and Isoko youth leader, Chief Fred Obey.

Ogboru, who was in company of the former state chairman of the DPP, Chief Tony Ezeagu,  Chief Emmanuel Ogboru and other leaders, said the party was merging with the Labour Party, LP.
DPP is dead

“The slogan of the DPP is now dead, it is now Labour Party,” he declared in the presence of supporters, who thronged Obey’s home.

Promised Land
Ogboru pontificated that LP is the platform through which Deltans will be taken to the Promised Land, saying, “Do not despair, do not shed tears, and do not have any regret because with God, all things are possible.”

The former DPP leader said his political journey to be governor of the state had been very long, just like the Israelite journey.

He disclosed that any moment from now, membership registration would commence and that there were enough cards for all members.

Delta needs change- Obey
Obey, who described Ogboru as the most no-nonsense governorship aspirant he had ever met, asserted that the people of Delta state had suffered for too long under bad leadership, and stressed the need for change.