Fellow Deltans, we are at a very critical stage of our history as a state where the decisions we make in the next few weeks, precisely on the 11th of March, will further sink or pull us out of the political and economic dungeon we currently find ourselves. You will recall that few weeks leading to the PDP primaries last year, we came up with an honest assessment of the three front runners in the persons of Olorogun David Edevbie, Olorogun Barr. Kenneth Gbagi and Rt Hnr. Sherriff Eborevwori based on their capacity and credibility, knowing fully well that Delta central is to produce the next Governor after the tenure of Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa.
Below, was the summary of our assessment and verdict:-
On Rt. Hnr. Sherrif Eborevwori:-
We do not need to repeat here, the controversies which erupted following the supporting documents to his declaration form submitted by him during the screening exercise.
Our verdict is that our party cannot risk fielding a candidate with such unconvincing credentials which could lead to the loss of the state we had laboured to keep since 1999, to the oposition. That is a sacrifice too terrible to contemplate, no matter who are sponsoring him.
On Olorogun David Edevbie :-
He possesses the requisite academic qualifications and experience to be a governor. But as we all know, he is carrying the nationally and internationally acclaimed dirty baggages of his overt sponsor and godfather, to whom he was an accomplice. That means, though he may be capable, he did not pass the credibility test. …
More importantly, is the fact that the prospect of PDP losing the general elections to APC if it fields Edevbie is too high to ignore. This is because, Edevbie will cause protest voting from other Senatorial districts of the state against PDP. Ofcourse, once beaten, twice shy.
Nobody wants to experience the ugly incidents of malfeasance of the past which had rendered the state comatose till now and we are being taunted by other Nigerians to account for the 13% derivation we get from Abuja every month.
That being said, Olorogun David Edevbie should be totally out of the permutations.
On Olorogun kenneth Gbagi:-
Gbagi, from our assessment is capable and credible to a large extent. However, we are aware of the many controversies trailing him, especially the one of stripping his workers naked for theft, which erupted about two years ago. He vehemently denied it and attributed it to the handiwork of traducers and political enemies who saw his early consultations to run for the governorship as threat to their ambition.
He went to a court of competent jurisdiction to seek redress and was vindicated as his accusers and conspirators including the Inspector General of Police, Delta State Commissioner of police and the the then Delta State Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice were ordered by the court to render a public apology to him and publish same in two national dailies for voilating his human rights with all the embarrassment he suffered as a result.
We are not aware that this court verdict has been appealed. Gbagi had suffered such accusations and propaganda previously. Firstly, close to 2003 primary elections, he was alleged to be rearing lions which he wanted to unleash on the public.
This led parents in and around Effurun to withdraw their children from school for several days, until the rumor was found to be fake. Again, on the eve of 2007 primary elections, when it was alleged that he does not pay his workers their due wages. Gbagi came out to state that he will pay ten times the overdue salary of any of the staff that can prove he or she is being owed by his companies. Again, nobody showed up and the allegation died down after the primary elections of that year. Currently, the narrative is that Gbagi is too hard, connected and cannot be easily controlled by the godfathers of Delta politics or anybody for that matter. We believe these his perceived attributes ought to be assets instead of liabilities, strength instead of weakness.
This is the kind of governor Delta state needs at this critical stage.
He is one candidate who is passionate about the industrialization of every community, which is the springboard of sustainable:
– economic emancipation of the people;
– provision of educational infrastructure;
– provision of health facilities;
-Youth empowerment and
– true freedom for the people…
We believe Gbagi is the man who can do it for us.
That is our honest verdict.
Fellow compatriots, so far we could say unequivocally that we have been vindicated in our assessment.
Rt Hnr. Sherriff Eborevwori has been enmeshed in court cases after emerging as the governorship candidate in that PDP stage managed primary elections. Though he won at the Supreme Court, but it was at huge cost to the purse of the state government which has gone on an unprecedented borrowing spree. As we speak other cases are pending determination even before the elections in March. Unarguably, more will come up after the elections in the unlikely event that he wins. Today, our party is in the shadow of itself with many defections to the opposition parties and for the first time since 1999, we are not sure of victory in the forthcoming elections. We hope we have learnt our bitter lessons.
Also, just as we postulated, Olorogun David Edevbie to the relief of Deltans, is justifiably out of the race. No outgoing governor in his right senses would have allowed a Chief James Ibori surrogate to take over from him as the governor of Delta State, due to the monumental malfeasance committed by him between 1999 and 2007 when he was in office. Deltans will not forget in a hurry the damages done by Chief Ibori especially when his loots which are still being repatriated from Europe are unjustifiably being confiscated by an oppressive Federal Government. Well, who do we blame?
As for UPU immediate past executives, they were left to leak their wounds after the primaries and probably have learnt their lessons with the failure of their endorsed candidate to win.
Interestingly, the other main political parties – APC, APGA and LP are all fielding Urhobos as their gubernatorial candidates in the persons of Senator Obarisi Ovie Omo-Agege, Chief Great Ogburu and Deacon ken Pela respectively. While Olorogun Barr. Kenneth Gbagi whom we recommended for our party during the primaries had since moved to SPD to pursue his political aspiration to become the governor of Delta State, when he realised that the primaries were not to be conducted on a level playing field after many deceptive assurances from Governor Okowa.
As we did before the PDP primaries, we are compelled once again to assess and give our verdict on all the four top contenders for the race to Osadebey’s House.
On Senator Obarisi Ovie Omo- Agege:-
Senator Ovie Omo-Agege of the APC possesses the capacity to be governor based on his academic qualifications and experience . However, Omo- Agege has two major drawbacks namely: (1) he is the other side of the Chief James Ibori bad coin. He cannot extricate himself from the Ibori erra of malfeasance having been a key player in that government and undoubtedly an Ibori man Friday. Chief Ibori was playing on the intelligence of Deltans knowing fully well that head or tail he would pitch tent with Senator Omo-Agege to serve his interest as from May 29th 2023. He has since quietly done so without ruffling PDP feathers knowing fully well that his daughter is contesting a House of Representative seat under PDP. This is quite evident as majority of those who have defected from our party and are core loyalists of Chief Ibori are now with Omo-Agege in APC. There is every high probability that a deal has been struck and Chief Ibori’s influence will be conspicuous if Omo-Agege wins the governorship elections. They are only playing down on the deal because they know the negative implications it may have on Omo-Agege’s electoral fortunes.
(2) Equally bad enough, is the leading role played by Senator Omo- Agege in the mace snatching saga in the hallow chambers of the national assembly during the first term of the Gen. Buhari administration, in the full glare of National television. Worst still, is his denial of any involvement in the whole episode to the total dismay of Nigerians. That was the height of irresponsibility and display of lack of integrity. If he could deny his involvement in that episode, then he is not trustworthy to be given the responsibility of governing Delta State.
He should be contented with the handsome reward of Deputy Senate President for his negative behaviour by a nation suffering from moral decadence.
On what can be termed sentimental appeal, some have argued that Senator Omo-Agege has done well by attracting constituency projects to Delta Central Senatorial district more than any previous senators who have held that position. That reasoning is warped, in the sense that Omo-Agege did nothing in Delta Central during his first tenure in the Senate. It is obvious that it is because he has an eye on Osadebey’s house, Asaba, that is why he embarked on his deceptive siting of projects in some communities of Delta Central. It is definitely a ploy to decieve the people for their votes . Moreso, considering the total failure of APC at the federal level, Omo-Agege constituency projects’ gesture can be likened to whitewashing the peoples tombs just to cover the decadence that lie beneath. Most of those constituency projects have no bearing on alleviating the sufferings of the masses brought about by the APC led government at the center. What will solar street lights with less than two years lifespan do for the man who needs food on his table or the young graduate who needs a job to enable him setle down to plan his future?
From the above, Omo-Agege is not credible enough to be entrusted with the governorship of Delta state. Deltans must not fall into his ploys.
On Chief Great Ogboru:-
While we concede that he has all it takes to govern Delta State in terms of capacity and credibility, we must be honest enough to admit that he has become a spent force in Delta State politics having been contesting the governorship position since 2003, under different political platforms. Our honest advice is that Uncle Great Ogboru should retire from elective politics; because the forces that have consistently denied him victory in the past elections are still very much around to humiliate him even more in this dispensation. There is no need wasting one’s vote on him on an APGA ticket.
On Deacon Ken Pela:-
He could be considered credible to a large extent, but he lacks the capacity to govern a state as complex as Delta State. He has never been heard of overtly or remotely throughout his many years in the PDP to have nursed a governorship ambition. His recent ambition is quite accidental and he is only trying to capitalize on the popularity of Mr. Peter Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party under which Deacon Pela hopes to realise his ambition. It would be an error to entrust such enormous responsibility of the governorship of Delta state to someone who could be termed an opportunist. Governorship is a serious business that requires many years of planning to make a success of it. We need a governor who will hit the ground running; because given the current sorry position of the state, we do not have the luxury of a governor who will learn on the job. Such an experiment is too risky to contemplate because Deltans will not accept any excuse for non- performance from anyone who is going to occupy Osadebey’s house as from May 29th.
On Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi:-
Our pre- primary election’s verdict on him remains the same. He is the candidate that Deltans need as governor at the moment if we are to reverse the current sorry state we find ourselves. Delta State has been plunged into a monumental debt trap that requires a man of Gbagi’s sagacity to tackle. We believe it is by God’s intervention that Gbagi moved from the PDP and decided to run for the governorship under the platform of SDP. If he had not do so, Delta State would have been left with two monstrous parties and the choice between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Our general appeal to Deltans is that given the current state we are, we must shun party affiliations to vote individuals who can liberate us from bad governance. We believe Gbagi is the right person fo r the governorship job of Delta State as from May 29th 2023. Let us for once get it right at the state level the same way all Nigerians are yearning to get it right at the federal level.
