Explosion rocks Delta speaker’s 2015 consultation meeting, two feared dead

An explosion on Friday rocked a perceived 2015 governorship consultation meeting of the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Hon. Victor Ochei.
Two persons were feared dead.
The police said one person has been arrested in connection with the incident.
Ochei reportedly went to Obomkpa axis of the state for consultation with the traditional council and major stakeholders of the Kingdom when an explosive device blew up, making the show ‘to your tent oh, Israel’.
The explosion did not only disperse the chieftains, who had gathered in solidarity with the speaker, who hails from their senatorial district, but blew up two persons, whose identities were still unknown.
The speaker was said have been spirited out of the venue by his retinue of aides, including conventional and unconventional security officers.
The political moves of the speaker ahead of the 2015 governorship election, The Eagle Online gathered, has since thrown the camps of Senator Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa, representing Delta North Senatorial District, and Elder GodsdayOrubebe into confusion.
In the snowballing analysis ahead of the 2015 governorship in the state, Ochei, who stands tall among the ‘big’ three, as they are fondly referred to, to succeed Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, swiftly swung into hi-tech permutation “before the caucus of the party (Peoples Democratic Party) springs surprise as the former Governor of the state, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, did in 2007, when he waited till the 11th hour before anointing Uduaghan,” a source said.
Although, the speaker, alongside other aspirants from Delta North Senatorial District of the state, stands the chance of succeeding Governor Uduaghan, the full-scale plot by President Goodluck Jonathan’s Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, to pose a challenge from the Delta South Senatorial District, where Uduaghan hails from, has since been rejected by the foremost Ijaw leader and the First Republic Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clerk.
The speaker, an Engineer by profession, dashed into the politics of the state through an opposition party.
He soon launched himself into the mainstream politics of the state when he boldly decamped to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party after winning the Aniocha North constituency seat in 2003 on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party.
Because he is level-headed, humane and possibly delivered on his campaign promises, his people re-elected him in 2007 on the platform of the PDP.
That saw to his rising profile in the politics of the state.
The mantle of leadership of the House soon fell on him shortly after Senator Okowa resigned as the Secretary to the State Government during the 2011 election to contest Delta North Senatorial District seat and defeated the wife of the former National Chairman of the PDP, Nneamaka Ali.
Ochei, who gave Senator Okowa, a medical doctor by profession, his full support, having allegedly calculated that his chance, is now the arch-rival of Okowa for the 2015 governorship race.
Although, a source said Friday’s explosion was a result of the traditional kernel being blow whenever there was a burial rite to perform in the locality, ey witnesses however debunked the claim, insisting that “yesterday’s blast was extraordinary.”
According to an eyewitness, the explosion was a calculated attempt to rock the boat for the speaker, dent his image and kill his ambition.
The source said: “This is not the first time traditional kernel will be sounded in this community to announce a burial rite of an important person who passed on. Why has it not kill people? This explosion is strange, it has a political undertone. As I speak to you now, two persons have been hospitalized even as police swiftly waded into the occurrence.”
While all efforts to reach the speaker met brick wall, the Police Public Relations Officer at the state Command Headquarters, Lucky Uyabeme, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, confirmed the blast but said the nature of the explosion has not been ascertained.
Uyabeme confirmed that two persons were recorded as casualties of the blast even as he said: “Aalready, one person has been arrested in connection with the explosion.”