WHY IS SHERIFF RUNNING TO APC?

Basil Okoh

MaTaZ ArIsInG
Dallas, Texas

A powerful and sinister force has been unleashed on Delta APC. That force is sowing seeds of discord and undertaking a hostile takeover of the party itself. It’s a strong and powerful force operating with deep pockets and dashing boldness.

A few days ago, Mr. Francis Waive, an APC member representing Udu, Ughelli South and Ughelli North federal constituency called on governor Sheriff Oborevwori to abandon PDP and run the next election as APC candidate. Waive assured the governor that the slot will be reserved for him in APC. He later affirmed to the PDP governor that he will be adopted by the APC to contest the coming governorship election as candidate of APC in Delta state.

A week before that, Ms Stella Okotete, an official of the NEXIM Bank and APC member was found visiting and cavorting with the PDP governor of the state. The purpose and outcome of the visit, no one can tell, although the governors press corps issued a double-barreled press statement, futilely explaining that she was there as part of a state welcome party as well as being part of a federal team to launch the short road project.

A week before that, the chairman of APC in Delta state, Elder Omeni Sobotie sent a petition to the national Chairman of APC, demanding first, the removal from office of the National Publicity Secretary Mr. Felix Morka, for clarifying the illegality of setting up a “Leaders Council” in Delta state.

These three people mentioned above were all listed to be members of a “leadership council”, an illegal body proposed to be set up by a faction of the party. The proposal for a leadership council, which has now been rejected by the National Working Committee, was a subtle move to impose a new and unelected leadership on the APC in Delta state. It was a grand move by the sinister force to legitimize the hijack of APC and hand the leadership over to PDP. Sheriff, the PDP governor, was proposed to inherit the growing popularity of APC and retain the governors seat, the next time, as APC governor.

So the occurrences related above are not coincidences and we draw public attention to the coordinated attempt to disrupt and hijack the APC in Delta state while Sheriff the governor is pretending to enjoy fealty with President Ahmed Bola Tinubu as Francis Waive so loudly proclaimed.

So the subterranean force which first came in the name of “leadership council” is working with determination and boldness to take over the APC and reinforce an elite faction determined to hijack the leadership and chart a dangerous course for the party in the 2027 governorship election. The force is a menacing savage dragon that threatens to gut the innards of the APC in Delta state, planting disaffection and setting up the party for ruin.

APC is poised to take over Delta, but the PDP is implementing a deep penetration operation into the party, its agents in high places muddling things up to achieve a hostile takeover of APC before 2027.

The party has to contend now with the conspiracy of its own elite which has been unable to integrate into the party or to mobilize party members for success. Even when popularity has being thrust upon APC by providence as we all watch PDP implode and members defect en masse into the APC, the so called leadership council has been unwilling to seize the moment and ride the popular wave for the good of their party. So this conspiracy is old and deep seated. PDP foresaw the meltdown of their own party and went to work ahead of time to re-hire elite defectors from their party for the sinister job of bending the APC to provide landing space for Sheriff.

Thereafter, the APC Exco in Delta went adrift, working at cross purposes, a group planting discord against their own party and abandoning commitment to win the 2027 election on their own. The party executive is now browbeating their own party leader instead of taking advantage of a fissuring in the PDP to build a bigger political tent to take in the deluge of defectors trooping into the APC.

The party chairman Elder Omeni Sobotie, the Minister, Festus Keyamo, some senators, House Members and a coterie of elite members of the party are working to upset the normative order of the party by getting themselves embroiled in the leadership council fiasco and denying Ovie Omo-Agege the title of Party leader when there’s a party election coming later in the year which will definitely settle the matter of a new Exco and raise a new party structure. They are instead encouraging dissent and not advancing the cause of the party through beneficial actions. They are not advancing the party cause. They are also not mobilizing the party for the purpose of winning elections. They work so committedly to supplant the aspirants of their own party for the candidates of the opposition. Where in the world does that happen? And now, they have factionalized the executive committee of the party and so can no longer bring unity of purpose to the entire organization. How does a party win elections without unity and without rallying round their leader?

The sorry situation in the APC now is that a faction of the party is unquestionably working for the opposition ruling party, PDP. They want to impose the governor and candidate of the PDP on APC. So arising from this treachery, the party is infiltrated by the refuseniks of the PDP and the only hope of PDP remaining in power is to organize a hostile takeover of the governorship candidacy of the APC.

The elite advocating for the PDP governor of the state to defect to APC and become the governorship candidate of APC in the next election are definitely succeeding and making fortunes from the effort. The grounds are already being prepared for Sheriff to be imposed as governorship candidate of APC in the 2027 election. For Sheriff, the numbers are definitely not adding up for electoral victory in PDP. Sheriff lost two senatorial districts out of three in the last election. The Delta North he won came with so much controversy. Senator Ned Nwoko’s defection from the PDP has exacerbated the race for the exits in the PDP of Delta North.

These treacherous APC members are politicians who are unable to survive without their teeth and tenterhooks sunk deeply into the flesh of Government House treasury.
The PDP in Delta has long lost the credibility to rule the state. So the plan is to transmute to the APC to continue PDP rule in Delta State. You know, as a snake molts and shed skin to renew itself and continue to live and thrive. But however it molts, it still remains a snake with its poison and venom still active. That’s exactly what PDP plans to do in Delta State, molt into a new APC identity, shed its skin but keep its nature as PDP and continue to rule the state.

With so many people leaving the party in droves, PDP is aware that it can no longer win elections in Delta state. So what to do? It molts, shedding it’s skin to the form and brand of APC and transmuting into a party aligned with the presidency, confiscating the brand of APC and continuing in the ruin of Delta state while keeping it’s inner core as PDP.

Governor Sheriff’s mortal fear of competition and loss of the governorship is driving the growing pressure on him to defect to the ruling APC and become their governorship candidate. It is a master plan for him and his group to remain the ruling party in Delta State. And this is the political caper Waive is promoting within APC and Delta state and presenting it as worthy of consideration by the APC.

Having witnessed the brigandage and overwhelming emasculation of PDP in Edo State, Governor Sheriff would rather be a traitor and win as governor in APC than remain in PDP and be a loser in the coming governorship election in Delta state. So to avoid the shame of losing the 2027 governorship election, Sheriff is opening the treasury of government House to the fifth column of APC to help prepare the grounds for him to defect and become governorship candidate of the APC. And so when Sheriff defects, Delta state will remain a PDP state but not in name anymore. All the courtesans of Governor Sheriff will remain in their posts and so will the entire crowd of special and not so Special Assistants. That will be the classic Mephistophelian coup. Delta will continue in its morass in a renewed “shege”.

So when you see the insistent muddling of the leadership and governorship contest in APC by its own elite, understand that the game is to ensure that Ovie Omo-Agege does not emerge as a governorship candidate of the APC and the pressure will mount to prepare the grounds for Governor Sheriffs defection into APC as the governorship candidate.

Everyone has to understand that all the elite quarrel about the absence of “leader” in APC Delta grinds down to creating a false vacuum for Sheriff to come in and fill. It is all about denying Ovie Omo-Agege’s leadership and bringing in Sheriff to take his place as governorship candidate of APC in Delta state. Nigeria has become the cesspool of enervating political intrigues and we are watching one political intrigue unravelling in real time in Delta state. Many among the elite of Delta state are complicit in this conspiracy of ecdysis of sheriff molting into the APC.

The insult to the APC is not obvious to these black legs of the party in Delta. That they cannot find anyone from among themselves capable of leadership is a shame that they don’t realize it’s portents. It remains a depressing irony that the state chairman of the party listed 41 “who’s who” personalities in APC in Delta state, as contained in his petition to the National Chairman. That they cannot find one person among these men and women is the ultimate disgrace.

People have forgotten so soon that Sheriff Oborevwori was rejected to govern Delta State by his own party PDP and N63 billion had to be spent on the litigation to accept him and to legalize his election victory along with certificate deficiencies. So having to accept Sheriff Oborevwori, a PDP reject whose initial choice as candidate destroyed a ruling party PDP in the state should be an utter disgrace to APC.

It is the insistence of former PDP governor Ifeanyi Okowa to field a barely literate Sheriff as governorship candidate of PDP that caused the rupture in the party and brought it’s evocative decline in Delta State. Now the same runaways from PDP are bringing the same Sheriff as governorship candidate of the APC. Sheriff will have the dishonour of bringing destruction to two major political parties in the state. It’s a clear path to ruin.
@basilokoh.

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