The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State has never found itself at a crossroads over its governorship candidate as it is today. The party had won practically all elections in the state since the return to democratic rule in 1999.

But times have changed as internal wrangling has taken over contest for the highest position in the state, ahead of next year’s general elections. In 2015, the issue of rotation of the governorship almost tore the two main parties, PDP and All Progressives Congress (APC) apart in the state. 

The crisis was nipped in the bud immediately after the primary elections, as both winners and losers in the PDP fell in line, while disagreements lingered in the APC, until recently.

The settlement of the fallout of the PDP governorship primary is having adverse effect on the party’s chances of continuing to hold sway at the Government House, Asaba. And it will need more than judicial declarations to rein in the dissenting camps.

The Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Sheriff Oborevwori, had at the party’s primary in May this year, polled 590 out of 825 votes to beat a former commissioner for finance and immediate past chief of staff to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Olorogun David Edevbie, who garnered 113 votes.

Edevbie challenged the outcome at the Federal High Court in Abuja, and the presiding Judge, Justice Taiwo Taiwo, in granting Edevbie’s prayers, sacked the Speaker for allegedly supplying false and forged documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as part of his qualification for the governorship election, and ordered the INEC to list the plaintiff as the authentic candidate, having come second in the primary.

Oborevwori is Okowa’s preferred aspirant, while Edevbie is the preferred choice of a former governor of the state, Chief James Ibori.

Oborevwori has since appealed the judgment and the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, has reserved judgment after being briefed by the counsel to the parties. At the court session last Friday, parties in the suit adopted their brief of arguments and a three-member panel of the court, led by Justice Peter Ige, reserved judgment for a date to be communicated to all parties.

Now, major party affairs and decisions regarding the governorship ticket and the presidential election are taken in Abuja. Okowa, as vice presidential candidate, has been busy crisscrossing the country preparatory to kick-off of campaigns and attending to other party matters. He also played a prominent role in reconciling the aggrieved members of the party in Osun prior to the governorship poll, received decampees to the party and representing the presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar at some official functions.

But he has not abandoned his duties as governor, as some are wont to believe or had feared when he emerged as Abubakar’s running mate. The governor has been managing both state and party affairs equitably.

Since determination of the matter shifted to the Federal High Court, now Court of Appeal, and likely ending at the Supreme Court, all in Abuja, a lot of party faithful are becoming disturbed that the governorship ticket is in dispute. But most members remain upbeat, insisting Delta is and will remain a PDP state, irrespective of the current “disagreements,” as they called it.

With his emergence as the party’s vice presidential candidate, a choice that is yet to sit with some party members, including those from his South-South zone, Okowa is fighting political battles on two fronts – the state and national levels.

But the governor is not new to such battles. Indeed, in 2014, ahead of the 2015 general elections, he defeated Edevbie in a make or mar contest, an episode that has continued to shape current events in the party, to pick its governorship ticket.

As political activities rev up, governance winds down, as politicians await lifting of political campaigns next month. A prominent politician in the state predicted that activities would remain so until the elections take place and a new administration assumes office, adding: “It is not new; there is nothing strange about it. Even at the national level, governance has since wound down and even the President said he was looking forward to retiring to his hometown in Daura.

“Normally, as the general elections draw near, politicking takes precedence over governance; it’s a normal occurrence in politics, all over the world’s democracies. But that does not mean the government is not functioning; government activities are going on even as politicking is going on.”

Despite the current litigation over its governorship ticket, Okowa and the state Chairman of the party, Mr. Kingsley Esiso, and indeed members of the party remain upbeat that PDP would come out stronger at the end of the court process, dismissing the likelihood of the scenario that happened to Rivers State APC in 2015.

“That will not happen; this is Delta State, not Rivers. There will be a candidate of the PDP on the ballot and PDP will surely participate in next year’s governorship election. The wish of the opposition will not come to pass in Delta.”

Esiso told The Guardian in Asaba: “Reconciliation is ongoing; it is a continuous process, and it is going very well. Our house is fully in order; it’s strong and unshakable.

“Disagreement is normal and is part of democracy; if there is no disagreement, it is not democracy. We may disagree, but at the end of the day, we will agree.”

MEANWHILE, the APC is hoping to reap from the internal wrangling in the PDP in the coming elections, vowing to cut short the ruling party’s dominance of Delta politics since 1999.

Its state Chairman, Chief Omeni Sobotie, speaking to journalists in Asaba on the occasion of his birthday, said PDP has ruined the state enough and it was time for the party to leave the stage for a credible party (APC) to take over government, having allegedly failed to provide the necessary democratic dividend to Deltans in its 23 years in the saddle.

“There is no man that has remained in power perpetually. Even the Bible records that riches are not forever. That means PDP’s reign in Delta is coming to an end one day and that day is next year.”

Sobotie stated that the signs were there for all to see and even the blind knows PDP’s days in power in the state are numbered, “as we are taking over the state next year.” 

As PDP members in Delta State await the judgment of the appeal court in Abuja, which is expected before the September 5 deadline for listing of candidates/parties vying for elective positions, to enable the party constitute its campaign organisation, it is the prayer of the APC that the PDP crisis festers, with the hope of cashing in on it.