By MANI ONYE

For a party that is still trying to find its feet after the disastrous outing in the 2023 General Election generally blamed on the leadership style of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, it is saddening that the All Progressives Congress, APC is still unable to articulate a response to the ruling party in Delta State.

The betrayal of the common interest is fanned across the three senatorial districts. In Delta South, the party is still reeling from the bad blood between the three dominant ethnic groups, the Isoko, Itsekiri and Ijaw.

In Delta Central, the attempt by those around Senator Omo-Agege to cripple the recognised state leadership of Engr. Hon. Omeni Sobotie has led to the sharp divisions that culminated in the devaluation of the party in the senatorial district.

Remarkably, the same dose of insanity is fanning the embers of disunity that has turned the party into a laughing stock among the reasonable men in Delta North. Genuine party members are gripped in shame as men of questionable political pedigree struggle for the leadership of the party in Delta North.

Significantly, the two men spearheading the crisis in Delta North, Senators Ned Nwoko and Peter Nwaoboshi are not examples that genuine members and lovers of the party should be proud of. Both men who are spin-offs from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP defected to the APC for no other reason but for their selfish political reasons.

Nwaoboshi who was originally elected on the platform of the PDP and served his two terms in the Senate crossed over to the APC on the fear that Senator Ifeanyi Okowa would reposes the ticket from him. So with all certainty, no genuine APC member will say that he had altruistic motives in crossing over to the APC. Is it any surprise that he spent most of his campaign period running away from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC?

It was as such no surprise that Mr. Ned Nwoko whose rise to fame was upon wealth supposedly made from commission from Nigeria?s debt relief and also marriage to a lady more than 30 years younger than him easily won the election on the platform of the PDP.

That the APC lost the Delta Senate election to a man whose moral quotient was debatable goes well to speak of Nwaoboshi?s moral fortitude and right to fly the APC ticket in 2023.

However, what will shock people today now is that Nwoko has now crossed over to the APC putting to question the integrity of the moral perimeters around the party in Delta State. Is the APC now a dumping ground for those with questionable judgments in moral persuasion?

It is no surprise that even before Nwoko has entered the party that we are being entertained to a fight in the mud between him and Nwaoboshi.

Senator Nwaoboshi in a strategic move to keep the food to himself has raised obstacles to the entry of Nwoko into the APC. He has not given any strong reason only alleging that Nwoko wants to dissolve the party structure and that the incumbent senator negotiated his entry through power brokers in Abuja.

The Nwoko camp on its part is accusing Nwaoboshi of wanting to sustain his hegemony and squash the growth of the party in Delta State.

However, genuine lovers and members of the party do not see anything to be proud of the ongoing supremacy battle between Nwaoboshi and Nwoko. None of them has the moral fibre that any genuine party member should be proud of.

The ongoing battle will not only diminish the APC in Delta North and Delta State as a whole, but will lead to the disappearance of the APC as a vibrant opposition capable of challenging the supremacy of the PDP.

? Mani Onye writes from FCT Abuja.

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