Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria – By Sunny Ojeihomon.
It was chaotic last weekend in Asaba, the Delta State capital, when the Special Adviser on Intergovernmental Affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan, Mrs. Mariam Ali, and the State Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Peter Nwaobosyi, engaged in a free-for-all fight at the secretariat of the party.
The secretariat was practically turned into a boxing ring as the two PDP leaders threw decorum into the winds. Their clothes were torn into shreds while the commotion lasted in the presence of their aides, members of the party and top officials of the state government as well as security agents.
It was gathered that the members of the party and top government officials had gathered at the secretariat to witness the formal presentation of official vehicles to the chairmen of the party in the 25 local councils of the state.
Although the sitting arrangement on the high table triggered the crisis, it was disclosed by a source at the gathering that the ambition of two of them to seek the nomination of the party to represent Delta North in the Senate in the 2015 election might have fueled the animosity between them.
Ali and Nwaoboshi who hail from Delta North had declared interest in the seat currently occupied by Senator Ifeanyi Olowa, who is seeking the gubernatorial ticket of the party.
The Board of Trustee member of the party, who is also the wife of a former national chairman of the party, Dr. Ahmadu Ali, had earlier protested that no seat was reserved for her on the high table.
Ali, who had earlier sat comfortably on a chair on the high table, was ordered to vacate the seat by security agents, who claimed that it was meant for the state’s deputy governor, Prof. Amos Utuama.
It was gathered that Nwaoboshi joined forces with the security agents to force the party’s BoT member to surrender the seat.
The development was said to have angered Mariam Ali, who reportedly confronted Nwaoboshi to demand the reason for the shabby treatment and the claim by Nwaoboshi that he was not aware of her status as a BoT member of PDP, a phenomenon which infuriated her.
The heated argument by the two PDP leaders degenerated and members of the party watched helplessly as two of them engaged in fisticuffs.
Sanity did not prevail until their clothes were turned to shreds. They were later helped into their cars by some party leaders.
Nwaoboshi, who later spoke to journalists, said Mariam Ali, was the aggressor. “Despite the provocation, I did not retaliate, even when she slapped me twice and tore my dress to shreds she could have been lynched if not for my intervention and that of security men and the elders of the party.”
He stated that Ali would be punished for her conduct. “The party leaders have decided to report her to the party executives of her local government and wards but the state executives would write a report to the National Executive of the party over the misdeeds of Ali,” he added.
