2023 guber: Okowa clears air on ‘endorsing a candidate’

Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, yesterday, said he has not endorsed any gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to succeed him in 2023.

Deputy Governor, Kingsley Otuaro, Speaker, House of Assembly, Sheriff Oborevwori and former minister of state for education, Kenneth Gbagi had claimed that Okowa endorsed them as preferred candidate for the 2023 poll.

But speaking through his Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu, the governor said his name was merely being dropped for envisaged advantage by the candidates.

Aniagwu who addressed journalists in Asaba, said the aspirants were identifying with the achievements of Okowa’s administration and his integrity.

He said the governor being a democrat would not ask any of the aspirants to step down.

“Everybody knows that the governor has recorded a number of achievements, and it is believed and rightly so, that any direction he shakes his body will have a whole lot of advantage… if in that light they believe the name of the governor is capable of giving them advantage, you can’t blame them, and we are not going to fight them for using the name of the governor because they are trying to associate themselves with what is good,” he said.

Meanwhile, former governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, has opted out of the 2023 Delta south senatorial district race. As sitting governor in 2014 and against public expectations, Uduaghan had similarly declined to contest the position citing the need to sustain peace in the state.

In 2019, he, however, contested the position on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC) against incumbent, James Manager of the PDP, but lost.

It was, however, believed that Uduaghan’s return to the PDP was for him to re-contest the position, but in a statement by his media aide, Monoyo Edon, yesterday, he said:”I indicated interest to contest, but at no time did I collect form in the PDP, I only collected in the APC. At no time did I step down. I only stepped aside, because of election fatigue.”