Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba
Senator Ned Nwoko has been urged to accept the reality the his loss in his bid for a second term in the Senate in 2027 and to work with his old political ally and the All Progressives Congress (APC) 2027 Delta North Senatorial Candidate, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, in the overall interest of the party.
Executive Assistant to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori on Public Enlightenment (Projects and Policies), Mr Olisa Ifeajika, who gave the advice in a chat with newsmen in Asaba, noted that rather than dragging Governor Sheriff Oborevwori’s name into the issue of the outcome of the 2027 APC Delta North senatorial primary election as was being credited to the incumbent senator in the media, Nwoko should concede defeat and revitalive his partnership with former governor Okowa to take Delta forward.
He stressed that Governor Oborevwori was not involved in the conduct of the party’s senatorial primary election contested by the incumbent senator representing Delta North and Dr Okowa and could, therefore, not determine its result especially as the direct primary method was adopted, whereby party members queued behind their preferred aspirant.
Ifeajika was reacting to the recent court ruling striking out Senator Nwoko’s suit challenging Dr Okowa’s emergence as the APC candidate for the Delta North Senatorial District in the 2027 general election.
An Abuja Court threw out the suit instituted by Nwoko challenging Okowa’s candidacy of APC for Delta North Senatorial District for the 2027 general election on grounds of incompetence.
To begin with, Senator Ned Nwoko is not from the same senatorial district as the governor, Ifeajika noted, saying that Governor Oborevwori was in his own to participate in the APC direct primary election, which took place simultaneously with that of Delta North where Dr Okowa and Senator Nwoko were both aspirants, he noted.
Ifeajika said, “The governor did not meddle into the matter and did not support Okowa to win the Delta North Senatorial District primary as APC candidate for the 2027 general elections in the state.
“We know that the governor has his district to look into and know what was happening there and had no reason to meddle into Delta North affairs.”
All the signs pointing to his overwhelming rejection by the people of Delta North and his imminent defeat due to a shifting of loyalty to Okowa were quite visible during the period leading to the APC primary election by Nwoko strangely did not heed those signs, Ifeajika observed.
According to him, one of those warning signs for Nwoko was when a high-powered delegation of ApC leaders and stakeholders in Delta North led by Delta Deputy Governor, Sir Monday Onyeme, visited Dr Okowa at his Asaba residence with a passionate appeal to join the 2027 senatorial election race.
After giving an affirmative response to the invitation to contest the senatorial district again, Okowa commenced an extensive consultation exercise that took him to all the wards and stakeholders across the senatorial district simply to reassure the people that he was both willing to resent Delta North in the NationalAssembly again.
Ifeajika said that Nwoko also failed to read the writing on.the wall when his own ward members led by the councillor representing him in Aniocha North Local Government Area Council openly rejected his bid to return to the Senate in 2027, by offering to purchase the nomination form for Dr Okowa.
The last straw was probably Senator Nwoko’s alleged failure to embark on any serious consultation with the stakeholders across Delta North, he further said, adding that he instead chose to declare his second term bid for the Senate before travellers at the Asaba International Airport.
Therefore, it will suffice to state that Nwoko lost re-election bid to the rejection by the people of Delta North, saying that it was ridiculous to claim that Okowa was not a bonafide member of the APC.
governor’s aide posted.
Ifeajika said, “Nwoko did not consult anybody – family, people of Delta North – that he needed a re-election. Our people do not reside at the airport, but he only announced it to the airport staff and travellers.
“So, after the primaries – where he got the votes that he claimed he won we do not know – but I am sure that as we kept telling the people how the process went, it dawned on him that he had lost out of winning the ticket to contest for 2027 election.
“Nwoko resorted to the court not laying claim to victory this time but saying that Okowa was not qualified to contest for the primaries, alleging that he (Dr Okowa) did not resign from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before joining APC.
“We all knew how it happened. What could be more resignation than everybody defecting including the state governor, Okowa and everybody in PDP defected to APC, which was witnessed by the Vice-President, Kashim Shettima and other party stalwarts?”
