Ward Chairmanship Aspirant Stabbed As Omo-Agege, Ogboru Boycott APC ward Congress In Delta

A chairmanship aspirant for the All Progressives Congress in Jeremi ward 10 (III), Ughelli south local government area of Delta state, Mr. Jeremiah Oghoveta, has been reportedly stabbed to death following a misunderstanding on the conduct of the party ward congress.

Oghoveta, who is in his late 30s, was stabbed on the neck ahead of the nationwide ward congress of the APC near God’s Grace Ministry at Okwagbe town, even before the arrival of electoral material.

It was gathered that the deceased was stabbed by a younger brother of one the leaders of the party in the area before the arrival of materials for the exercise.

Sources in the community told our correspondent that it was not clear why the suspect had to stab the deceased after members of the party had reached agreement on how the exercise should be organized.

However, the embattled and suspended Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and Chief Great Ogboru were copiously absent from Delta state, as visit to Orogun and Abraka, the country homes of the two APC chieftains showed that they were not in town.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari and other party leaders went back to the ward to take part in the party ward congress, but shockingly, Chief Ogboru an APC governorship aspirant and the suspended senator failed to show up at the congress in the wards.

Meanwhile, the ward congress across the state started very late owing to the late arrival of materials to different local government areas across the state.

The state APC leader, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, while speaking to journalists on his assessment of the conduct of the ward congress in Delta, after voting at his Evwreni ward 8, described the exercise as generally peaceful.

He, however, noted that the poll experienced some delay saying: “I must say that because of the timing of delivery of materials, and the short time for aspirants to obtain and fill their forms even as at today people were still collecting nomination forms to fill.

“Another challenge was to get people who will conduct the election, because they want to satisfy all stakeholders to avoid allegation that some people have hijacked the process, this took time also. So, the reason from what I understand that caused us to experience delay in the start up of the elections.

“Apart from these little challenges, the election is going very well, even as we speak, election is still ongoing from the information I got.

“There is also an incident I understand that some people who want to frustrate the exercise broke into the hotel and stole some sensitive materials, but their action was not enough to put a stop to the election, fortunately the materials has not left, so those they stole, was taking note of, in order to certify them.

“We understand that it was result sheets that were stolen; you know politicians are always in the habit of stealing result sheets, but that is under check.

On the uproar over the choice of centers for the conduct of the congress, Emerhor explained that competing interest in the party were giving conflicting directive, but the party election guideline stated that the congress committee should decide the venue, and the first option is party secretariat at the ward, unless where it’s not conducive, stakeholders will agree on venue.

Emerhor added: “I voted at the party secretariat in my ward, at Evwreni, Ughelli North and it was very peaceful and orderly. Considering the information we are getting from other states, I think we are doing very in Delta state, but like I said, the election is still ongoing.

Our correspondent’s findings revealed that the congress was going on peacefully in the various wards of the 25 LGAs of the state.