Nigeria Content Online

The re-election
bid of the Delta State governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, may have suffered a
major setback, as a faction of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in
the state has rejected his candidacy.

At a press
conference in Abuja on Monday, Godwin Eboma, spokesperson for a faction
of the party led by former minister of information, Edwin Clark, said
the governor did not support the region’s interests.

“The constant
disclosures in the media that Delta State PDP is not supporting Mr
Jonathan’s candidacy is embarrassing, unpatriotic and insulting to the
good people of the state who actively support the Goodluck Jonathan
ticket,” Mr Eboma said.

Mr Eboma said that
the governor controls less than 20 per cent of the PDP’s state
membership while the Mr Clark’s group controls more than 80 per cent.

“This was loudly
demonstrated at the rally in Effurun, Warri, which was attended by over
50,000 party supporters for Goodluck Jonathan,” he said. “The rally
outrightly rejected the candidacy of Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan in the
forthcoming elections and highlighted the insignificance of his group
in PDP politics in Delta State.”

Party politics

However, an
official with the Delta State governor’s office, who requested
anonymity, denied that there was any enmity between Mr Clark and the
governor. He said the former national chairman of the party, Vincent
Ogbulafor, had called a meeting at the party secretariat in Abuja to
resolve the crisis.

“The issue of the executive of Delta State PDP has been resolved by the National Executive Committee,” he said.

In a petition to
the president, the faction said the party executive in the state led by
Peter Nwaoboshi, was an illegal body, and called on the president to
dissolve it. It also accused the party’s National Working Committee
(NWC) under Mr Ogbulafor of colluding to destabilize the party in the
state.

“Ogbulafor did not listen to us. Even when we told him that those he
was trying to impose on the people were not qualified for the position,
he did not care about our arguments,” read the letter. “We are not
going to allow that. We will fight it constitutionally.”