Kingsley Otuaro, a loyalist of ex-militant, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, has emerged the running mate of Senator Ifeanyi Okowa of the Peoples Democratic Party for the 2015 governorship election in Delta State.
Otuaro is a lawyer and commissioner in the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission.
He is of the Ijaw ethnic stock like Ekpemupolo.
Otuaro’s name was submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission on December 26, 2014.
With Otuaro’s emergence, the desire of the Isoko ethnic stock of Delta State to produce the deputy governorship candidate of the state has been dashed.
This has also unsettled the political calculation in the state as it relates to the Delta South Senatorial District.
The district is made up of three main ethnic groups: Ijaw, Itsekiri and Isoko.
The Isoko were originally scheduled to produce the deputy governorship candidate, while an Itsekiri man will head to the Senate.
The Ijaw already had the chairmanship of a major local government in the area ceded to them.
However, after the local government election in the state, Ekpemupolo worked for the emergence of an Urhobo man, Okowa, as the governorship candidate of the PDP and also insisted the representative of the district in the Senate, Senator James Manager, also an Ijaw man, retains his seat.
Manager already has the Senate ticket.
With the emergence of Otuaro as deputy governorship candidate, the Isoko and Itsekiri of the Delta South Senatorial District will have no outstanding electable position from 2015 should the PDP sweep the polls next year.
Tompolo’s man emerges Delta PDP governorship running mate
