Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Ahead of the March 2, 2019, governorship election in Delta State, a chieftain of the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), Hyacinth Enuha, on Tuesday said leaders of the party had resolved to work in one accord to deliver the party’s candidate, Great Ogboru.
Enuha told newsmen in Ogwashi-Uku that leaders of the various factions were on the verge of signing an agreement that would take care of the interests of all stakeholders.
The APC chieftain gave kudos to the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, for midwifing the reconciliation process, noting that the agreement had been carefully drafted to ensure that all pending issues were resolved and that pending court cases were withdrawn.
It would be recalled that the mainstream APC led by the 2015 governorship candidate of the party, O’tega Emerhor, has not accepted the Ogboru as the 2019 governorship candidate on the grounds that state executive committee that conducted the primary where he emerged was not the authentic state executive of the party.
Enuha admitted that the party had been in crisis since the congresses to elect ward, local government, and state executive committees, adding, however, that the leaders have been placated following the intervention of Prof. Osibanjo.
“Nobody can pretend that we did not have issues within the party in the state, starting with the congresses up to the primaries. And those problems are still there; people felt cheated; people felt marginalised; people felt injustice had been done to them.
“You have all these things going on but the good news is that the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has stepped in, and he has made a lot of progress in resolving and reconciling all the parties.
“And thank God the governorship election is three weeks away, and we are hoping that this week, the agreement will be consummated and signed and you will see the difference. Everybody will come together, and I assure you that we are going to deliver our candidate for the governorship,” he said.
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According to him, it was the desire of most APC stakeholders that the governorship candidate should be from Delta North but that Ogboru from the Central “emerge as a candidate as approved by the National Working Committee (NWC). And you could see a lot of controversies that trailed that exercise, and as we speak, people are still in court seeking justice.
“But the vice president stepped in and tried to calm all the nerves, telling them that politics is a game of give and take. You give up this, you take this. And we all agreed that our leaders have spoken. Politics is a marathon; before you know it, four years is gone. We now said since that has been the case, we give up our aspiration for the good of the party.
“Anyhow you look at it, we still belong to APC; we cannot go to PDP. Those who felt so bad and said they wanted to go to PDP, have gone to PDP. People like us who are too old to be running up and down will stay and try to make it right; you try to make the bad situation right. And that is why we are supporting the decision of the VP and we will do everything right to deliver our gubernatorial candidate, Ogboru; because as we speak, there are still many cases in court.
“If he wins, it is APC, if somebody wins him later in court, it is still APC. But if we go and vote for PDP, it will not profit APC in any way. It is still a family affair in APC; that is why we made the ultimate sacrifice of suppressing our Delta North agenda and keying into the decision of the vice president.”