By Ovie Okpare
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa is believed to have sacked the Delta State Commissioner for Higher Education, Professor Patrick Muoboghare, following his replacement with a new commissioner, Dr Kingsley Ashibogwu.
Ashibogwu is among the five new commissioners sworn in by Governor Okowa on Tuesday in Asaba, the state capital.
Okowa, who is also the Vice Presidential candidate of the People Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2023 general elections, announced the replacement of Prof Muoboghare while disclosing portfolios of the new commissioners.
The governor did not, however, disclose if Muoboghare had been sacked or resigned from the State Executive Council.
The development left members of the State Executive Council, political appointees and guests who attended the swearing in ceremony susurrating.
Recall that Governor Okowa had fortnight ago sworn in a former member of the State House of Assembly, Chief Samuel Mariere, from Ughelli North like Muoghare as commissioner for Water Resources.
Muoboghare was first appointed as Commissioner for Higher Education in 2015 and was reappointed in 2019.
He was the arrowhead for the creation of three new universities in the state – University of Delta, Agbor, Delta University of Science and Technology, Ozoro, and Dennis Osadebe University, Asaba.
The new commissioners are Dr Kingsley Ashibogwu – Higher Education; Dr Darlington Ijeh – Human and Community Development; Dr Godfrey Enita – Agriculture; Chief Anthony Ofoni – Project Monitoring and Audit and Mrs Nkechi Enumah-Chukwura – Girl-Child Entrepreneurship Development.
He congratulated the commissioners on their appointments and urged them to justify the confidence reposed in them, especially at this critical period that the administration had entered the last lap of its term.
Meanwhile, efforts to speak with the immediate past commissioner for Higher Education, Prof. Muoboghare, from Uwheru in Ughelli North, on the development proved abortive.
