The coast appears to be clear for Chief Dan Orbih, the caretaker committee National Vice Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to emerge the substantive occupant of the zonal leadership position.

Orbi may be returned unopposed as the national vice chairman of the South South, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

Orbih’s emergence will be as a result of the disqualification of the immediate past National Vice Chairman of the party from the zone, Elder Emmanuel Ogidi

A trusted member of the Screening Committee for the Zonal delegates’ conference holding in Port Harcourt told NAN on Tuesday that the committee had disqualified Orbih’s opponent, Ogidi, from the race.

The official said that Ogidi, who was the party’s immediate national vice chairman South South, was appointed by Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa as Special Adviser, Neighbourhood Watch, and Chairman Delta state Security Trust Fund last August.

Speaking with NAN on the condition of anonymity, the official said that Ogidi’s disqualification followed his failure to resign from his present appointments with the Delta government.

According to the screening committee member, Ogidi ought to have resigned 30 days before his expression of interest to contest for the position of national vice chairman, saying his failure to abide by the stipulated law truncated his ambition.

A NAN Correspondent covering the party’s zonal delegates’ conference reports that no fewer than 1,095 delegates have converged on the Dr Obi Wali International Conference Centre, Port Harcourt, to elect the zonal leadership of the party.

The delegates are drawn from Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Rivers.