I will win again, Uduaghan says

Deposed governor of Delta State, Emmanuel Uduaghan, yesterday said for the first time since 2007, he no longer had to attend to files or contractors who besieged his office.
The governor, who spoke about how he has been spending his days out of office said he now thinks of the forthcoming rerun elections, which he said he was sure to win because of his achievements in office in the last three years.

The former governor was at the PDP national secretariat Abuja where he held a meeting with the party leadership. Others at the meeting, presided over by the chairman, Okwesilieze Nwodo, were the acting governor, Sam Obi; acting speaker of the state house of assembly, Basil Ganagana and the state PDP chairman, Peter Nwaoboshi.
Mr Uduaghan admitted that he was shocked by the judgement, but preferred not to go into details since his legal advisers are looking into it.
He also refused to comment on the alleged plot by a group of party members led by Edwin Clark to shop for another candidate to replace him. "The National Working Committee has come out with a statement on who the PDP candidate is and I think I want to leave it at that," he said.

Speaking further on the rerun election, Mr Uduaghan said it is a PDP election. "First of all let me say this, that it is a PDP election and PDP is firmly on ground in Delta State. It is a PDP election PDP are there from the councilors, local Government Chairmen, house of assembly, national Assembly," he said.
"Coupled with the things we have done and I must emphasize that our emphasis in our campaign will not be just on the big issues that people talk about - airport and all that - but will be more on the grass root things that we have done."
Before the meeting went into closed-doors, Mr Nwodo declared that the PDP will not field another candidate besides Mr Uduaghan.
"Our tradition is that where elections are annulled, be it in the National Assembly or any other place, we go back with our candidate in that election. Our candidate in this election is no other person but Uduaghan," he said.
Mr Nwodo said the party was not expecting the court judgement. According to him, "we had thought that the crucial issues had been ruled on, little did we know that there was yet another matter."
He said the party has implicit confidence in the acting governor to keep its flag flying and asked the indigenes of the state to give him support.

Mr Obi said he and the leadership of the party in Delta State had gone to brief the national leadership on the strategy they were putting in place to win the rerun election.
The acting governor said he was merely holding the seat for Mr Uduaghan, whom he said was on vacation. He said he had met with the party leadership with a view to soliciting support in running the state.
Others at the meeting were a member of the House of Representatives, Dan Reneju; state secretary of PDP, Solomon Ogba; former SSG, Ifeanyi Okowa; former speaker, Martins Okonta; Health Commissioner, Joseph Otumara; Transport Commisisoner, Lawrence Osiegbu; Chief of Staff to the former governor, Solomon Areyarka; and Director of Protocol, Godwin Abigor