Delta bye-election aftermath: Why APC, DPP, others lost to PDP

Facts emerged in Asaba, the Delta State capital, on why the newly registered All Progressive Congress and the Democratic Peoples Party lost the state’s Delta Central Senatorial District bye-election to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
In the keenly contested election, Olorogun Otega Emerhor of the APC, Chief Ede Dafinone of the DPP and a seasoned journalist, Olorogun David Omoru of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, and six others, all lost to ex-Niger Delta Development Commission boss, Hon. Emmanuel Aguariavwodo of the PDP.
The Independent National Electoral Commission report cards have it that the PDP’s Aguariavwodo scored 263,024, to beat the APC’s Emerhor who garnered 29,075, and Dafinone of the arch-rival DPP, who got 29,055.
Their poor performance was linked with four recent incidences that occurred in the oil rich state, few days to the conduct of the election.
Firstly, barely three days to the election, a National Assembly member on the platform of the DPP, who doubles as a staunch chieftain of the party, representing Udu/Ughelli Federal constituency, Hon. Austin Ogbaburon, joined the PDP with over 2,000 supporters.
Secondly, the notorious kidnapping kingpin, Kelvin Ibruvwe, was said to be a tool in the hand of the rival party.
Consequently, his arrest and eventual detention in Abuja was said to have spelt doom for the DPP as the party could not make use of his gang during the election.
Moreover, pundits said, rival parties to the PDP prepared for violence and the use of multiple-registrations to coast to victory while the ruling party girded its loins and campaigned vigorously for the election.
“Judging,” a source told The Eagle Online, “by the way and manner the remnant of his gang unleashed terror on the Senator-elect, Hon. Emmanuel Aguariavwodo, and his campaign train, during his campaign tour to Kokori, Kelvin’s home town last week, it was clear that those behind his escapade have been disappointed.”
The tight security arrangement, comprising soldiers, conventional and unconventional policemen, parading the major roads and enforcing the law of restricted movement, was another factor that scuttled the plot of the opposition.
Continuing, the source said, APC had plotted to deploy machineries from the neighbouring Edo State to pose as voters before security report reached the security agents “who”, according to him, “immediately barricaded the Warri/Benin Expressway on the day of the election to prevent the influx of APC’s paid supporters in its stronghold state.”
The arrangement was unconnected with the initial fear that a particular political party had plotted to derail the voting exercise and cause bloodshed during the election.
The fear was heightened when the Governor of the state, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, raised the alarm and read riot act against possible violence.
Owing to that, men of the Nigerian Army mounted heavy barricade on major roads, particularly the Warri/Benin Expressway, following the aforementioned fear of influx of people from the neighbouring Edo State, which is the strongholds of the All Progressives Congress.