May 29, (THEWILL) – The struggle for supremacy between former Delta State Governor, James Ibori and the incumbent Governor Ifeanyi Okowa finally came to a head on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. After months of pretending that all is well between the two most influential personalities in Delta State, the battle finally came to an end with a clear winner – Senator Ifeanyi Okowa.
Okowa’s anointed candidate, who is expected to succeed him at the end of his tenure in 2023, the current Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Sheriff Francis Oborevwori, emerged winner in the People Democratic Party’s governorship primary, beating 13 others, including David Edevbie, Ibori’s candidate who came a distant second with 113 votes.
Oborevwori polled 597 votes. He was so ecstatic about his win that he openly knelt down to appreciate Okowa who made his emergence happen.
Besides Oborevwori’s victory, Okowa’s daughter, Marylin, also emerged victorious in the party’s House of Assembly primary. However, Ibori’s daughter’s journey to victory in the primary for the House of Representatives wasn’t exactly smooth. The fact that it ended in a tie between her and her opponent, despite his pleas to the state’s delegates, spoke volumes about Ibori’s waning political clout. A rerun eventually saw his daughter, Erhiatake, emerging victorious.
But how did things degenerate between these two political gladiators?
Ibori and Okowa have come a long way and are veterans of many political battles. For instance, while in jail in the United Kingdom for graft and money laundering, Ibori ensured Okowa became governor, even though his cousin, former governor Emmanuel Uduaghan vehemently refused Okowa’s emergence.
Okowa in turn honoured Ibori by appointing some of his loyalists, including Edevbie, in the Delta State Government, gave Ibori contracts running into hundreds of milions of naira and just generally watched his back.
Ibori had campaigned actively for Okowa’s re-election in 2019 and was instrumental in ensuring that Okowa gave Uduaghan’s first daughter, Orode, an appointment in his government, in a bid to end the conflict between Okowa and Uduaghan. But they both came on a collision course when Okowa preferred to anoint his own candidate to succeed him. This obviously didn’t go down well with Ibori, who had his eyes spread across key positions in the state in his bid to install some persons to get back his political influence in the state.
Okowa threw the first salvo to send home his message. He sent packing from his government, all of Ibori’s loyalists, including Edevbie who Ibori was openly positioning to take over from Okowa. Edevbie, a former Commissioner for Finance during Ibori’s administration and later the Private Principal Secretary to late President Musa Yar’Adua is undoubtedly, one of Ibori’s closest confidants, who allegedly helped the former governor with his illicit financial schemes. Being a loyalist who never squealed on his boss, Ibori felt duty bound to reward him and thus asked Okowa to make him his finance commissioner which he willingly did. Almost immediately, Ibori began to nurse a higher ambition for Edevbie to take over from Okowa and by extension, protect his (Ibori) interests and dance to his (Ibori) tune. But his plans boomeranged. Ibori must have read the handwriting on the wall as on the day of the primary, he was conspicuously missing.
Then the issue of who occupies the Delta Central Senatorial District came up. Ibori wanted Ighoyota Amori for the position. Sensing a blockade from obvious quarters, Ibori sent out a message without naming names. He said that the plan to disgrace him via Amori’s ambition to return to the senate will not work.
“I am behind and I will support Senator Ighoyota Amori every step of the way, and anybody, anyone conspiring, anybody that thinks that because I am now a former governor they want to conspire to disgrace me, God will disgrace all of them. This is not an issue of money. All mothers should call their children to order. This is my senatorial district. I am a stakeholder in this party (PDP) and I am a stakeholder in Urhoboland. This is my place of birth. I am with Senator Amori all the way. Ibori is begging you and you are refusing? Please, support me to send Senator Ighoyota Amori to the Senate. I want to say it again that this senatorial race, this Senator Amori’s bid, is my bid. Please, join hands with me and join hands with Senator Amori to the Senate,” Ibori pleaded and threatened at the same time.
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