By Austin Ogwuda
Oborevwori in trouble over sharing political spoils
DELTA State Governor, Rt. Hon Sheriff Oborevwori seems to be in trouble as he faces intensive pressure and lobbying over the sharing formula of political appointments and other patronages.
Already, a group known as Egbema Unity Forum has protested the alleged move by the governor to appoint ex governor Emmanuel Uduaghan’s daughter as Commissioner.
The group threatened to resist what it described as “injustice” to the Ijaws of Warri North local government area of Delta State in terms of appointments into executive positions since 1999.
“It will be too costly as God is against the unjust”, according to a statement signed by Arch. Joshua Lemigha, Chairman and Mr. Tobou Tamaralayefa, Secretary respectively.
They claimed that rewarding Uduaghan’s daughter with commissioner position was a deal brokered by former governor Emmanuel Uduaghan and immediate past Governor Ifeanyi Okowa with the incumbent governor.
Recall that former Governor Uduaghan angrily decamped from PDP to APC following alleged complaint of being sidelined by Okowa.
He later returned back to PDP and was known to have fully thrown his weight behind Sheriff Oborevwori and campaigned vigorously for him.
Former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Dr. Olisa Imegwu, in an exclusive interview with The Town Hall said, “I knew what happened about the primaries and when PDP was losing during the guber main election in the state. It was clear after Okowa lost the presidential the PDP family knew the road was rough facing the governorship.”
Okowa did not sleep and Sheriff himself didn’t sleep.
“He (Sheriff) must fulfil those obligations. He must settle Okowa first.
“Then he must fulfil those promises he must have brokered with different pockets of people and groups outside PDP he ran to for support as the boat was sinking because no politician will accept to throw his or her support like that or do anti party.
He must have promised them appointments, contacts and the like.
“That he cannot run away from. It took Okowa the first tenure to sort out those arrangements, it was from the second tenure he (Okowa) started firing from all cylinders”.
“Another challenge he (Oborevwori) has is that of the huge debt burden he inherited.
“I just hope he will have good advisers around him to help him navigate these challenges”, Imegwu added.
The Town Hall can reliably confirm that the Debt Management Office indicated that Lagos State recorded the highest Domestic Debt as of the end of Q4 2022 with N807.21 billion followed by Delta State with N304.25 billion.
