2015: OCHEI’S ENDORSEMENT AT UBEKU’S LAGOS RESIDENCE TEARS ISOKO LEADERS APART

By SaharaReporters, New York

SaharaReporters has learned of a cold war among political figures of Isoko ethnicity in Delta State over a purported endorsement of Victor Ochei, speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, for the post of governor come 2015.

Our correspondent reported that the formal introduction and purported endorsement of the speaker took place at the Lagos residence of Abel Ubeku, a prominent Isoko leader and former chief executive of Guinness Nigeria Plc. Mr. Ochei, who is from the northern section of the state, was reportedly presented shortly after a thanksgiving church service by Mr. Ubeku.

DELTA 2015: THE BIG BATTLE FOR UDUAGAHAN’S SEAT BEGINS

For all the efforts being put in by various aspirants in Delta State for the 2015 governorship election, the main obstacle today is Chief Edwin Clark, leader of the Ijaw nation and a minister in the First Republic. 

The elder statesman, regarded as the godfather of President Goodluck Jonathan is showing anybody within sight that he is in charge. But for how long can Clark hold the state?  DOMINIC ADEWOLE in Asaba reports that Delta, like in previous elections, revolves on a web of conspiracy. Result: The answer might be in a different direction.

The intrigues that trailed the 2007 governorship election in Delta State is rearing its head again. That was when the erstwhile Governor of the oil rich state, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, in collaboration with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in what looked like a give-and-take politics, anointed and delivered Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan as  the governor of the state.

2015: SACK FEVER GRIPS DELTA SPEAKER’S AIDES

Culled from Daily Independent

Political aides of the Speaker of Delta State House of Assembly, Hon. Victor Ochei, now sleep with one eye closed following the sudden sack of the Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker, Eddy Akpati.

The sacking of Akpati, which took place over three weeks ago, is said to have unsettled other aides of the speaker who has not hidden his intention to run for the highest office in the state in 2015.

Though, no reason was given in a statement signed by the chief of staff to the speaker that announced Akpati’s removal and replacement with Mr. Nkem Osu, sources told Saturday Independent that Akpati’s removal is not unconnected with a meeting he reportedly held in Abuja with a top politician from the state who is also interested in succeeding Uduaghan.

DELTA NORTH AND 2015 GUBER RACE

One issue that has dominated public discourse since 2011 when Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan began his second and final term in office as the governor of Delta State is the issue of which senatorial district should produce his successor in 2015.

And as the date for the next gubernatorial election gradually draws nearer, the discussions on the matter also get more intense. Rumours that some politicians who are not from Delta North Senatorial District are gearing up to throw their hats into the ring of the contest for the governorship seat are also heating up the polity.

Besides, the silence of the leadership of the party on the much-argued existence of a zoning arrangement that ceded the 2015 governorship to Delta North has continued to fan the embers of political agitation within the state.