By Emma Ogbuehi
Personality clash with Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and quest for deputy governor position in 2023 have been identified as reasons behind the defection of the Senator representing North Senatorial District and Senate Committee Chairman on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Peter Nwaoboshi, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressives Congress (APC), on Friday. The Senator was shortly after his carpet-crossing, received by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
Our Reporter gathered from a source who has been monitoring the unfolding developments in the state that the senator in moving to the APC, aims to run with Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege in a Delta Central/Delta North combination in the 2023 governorship election in the state – an agenda he considers tough task actualizing in PDP. Okowa has left many guessing on the particular zone he would prefer his successor to come from, though insinuations are rife that he is thinking of an Ijaw ticket.
In what seems a preemptive measure, Nwaoboshi has made the move that is also considered a continuation of personality clash between him and the governor.
TheNiche learnt that the two, have not really been on the same side since 2011 when Nwaoboshi was the state chairman of PDP and Okowa a senatorial aspirant for Delta North. The senator was said to have favoured Mariam Alli, wife of the then PDP National chairman, Ahmadu Alli. Even when Okowa had emerged tops in a mock election in the palace of Asagba of Asaba, Obi Prof Edozien and twice in the party’s primary, Nwaoboshi maintained his support for Mrs. Alli until a third primary in which Okowa also won convincingly.
The animosity almost came up in 2015 when Okowa was running for governor but was managed and the two appeared to have agreed. The latest upsurge in the face-off followed a statement attributed to the senator in which he allegedly said that of all the governors that had ruled Delta, Okowa is the least in terms of performance. Neither the state wing of the PDP nor the governor’s foot soldiers took the statement lightly. Promptly, the party slammed a suspension on Nwaoboshi. Two days later, a rally was held by indigenes of Anioma/Oshimili to register their support for the governor. Sensing that all doors to amicable resolution of the conflict between him and the governor, have been shut, the senator left PDP for the APC.
Senator Nwaoboshi was presented to the President by the Chairman of the APC Caretaker Committee and governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, at the First Lady’s Conference Room, presidential villa, Abuja.