Two prominent former ministers of Ijaw extraction have disagreed over which senatorial district will produce the next Governor of Delta State. They are Chief Broderick Bozimo, former minister of Police Affairs/Interior and Elder Peter Orubebe, former minister of Niger Delta.
Bozimo, who is leader of Delta Ijaw for Governor 2023 lobby team has been appealing to Deltans to give full support to the Ijaw (Delta South) Governorship bid come 2023, while Orubebe has promised to work physically and with his finance to ensure that Delta Central produces next Governor of the State in 2023.
Also, the former Minister of State for Education and Governorship Aspirant in Delta State, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi and Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger-Delta, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, both ranking members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, fell out over the performance of Delta Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, who has done six years in office.
Bozimo, during a consultation visit to Ndokwa last week reiterated that Ijaws in Delta State have been supporting others by voting Governors across all the senatorial districts and ethnic nationalities in Delta State since creation of the State and made a case for Ijaws to be supported to produce Governor of Delta State in 2023.
The former Minister of Police Affairs says the facts of this proposition are there, whether or not the Governorship rotation is based on senatorial or ethnicity, everything is there for us to see. The truth of the matter is that it has never been the case that rotation is based on senatorial basis in the state, everybody knows that politicians go for elections because we practice democracy and, by the rules of INEC, every Nigerian who is qualified under the Constitution or under the law is free to take part in the primaries.
That is, you cannot stop a man from taking part in the primaries. So, that has been the case in Delta State where politicians from the various senatorial districts in the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, participate in the gubernatorial primaries in every election year. So, when somebody from a particular senatorial district wins in the primaries, you now say it is on the basis of senatorial district, there is nothing like that cast in Government
But Orubebe, who once faulted Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa over Governorship senatorial zoning in the state, said Urhobo people (Delta Central) should go home and look for who would be Governor for everybody.
Orubebe made this known when leaders and members of Delta Central 2023 lobby group paid him consultation visit, saying this time around, “if we are reasonable, want to be fair and logical in what we should be doing, Urhobo people should have it.”
