By Ovie Okpare
Two of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa rumoured People’s Democratic Party 2023 Delta State governorship aspirants from Delta Central have been screened out of the race by the district’s lobby group, Delta Central 2023 (DC-23).
The two aspirants who were screened out by the group are a former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Senator Emmanuel Aguariavwodo and the immediate past commissioner for works, Engr. James Augoye.
They were among the five governorship aspirants Governor Okowa is rumoured to have penciled down as his likeable successor in the 2023 governorship election.
Aguariavwodo and Augoye were dropped from the five-man list which the DC-23 Prunning/Screening Committee had earlier submitted to the Senator Ighoyota Amori-led Delta Central group.
According to the committee’s final report, DC-23 picked Olorogun David Edevbie, Chief Kenneth Gbagi and Rt. Hon. Chief Sheriff Oborevwori as its final list of governorship aspirants for the PDP ticket.
The punning committee headed by Prof. Nyerhovwo Tonukari had on December 13th submitted its first report with Senator Aguariavwodo, Augoye, Edevbie, Gbagi and Oborevwori making the list.
The committee was further directed to prune down the number of aspirants to three in line with its terms of reference by considering the aspirants’ acceptability across the state, accessibility, integrity/credibility, capability, development strategy and Pan-Delta disposition.
Reading the committee’s report on Sunday, Secretary of the committee, Prof. Sunny Awhefeada said after series of meetings and screening exercise within the given time, the committee recommended Edevbie, Gbagi and Oborevwori as its preferred choices.
Awhefeada added that the selection of the three aspirants out of the five took place in the morning of the 6 of February, 2022, and that the evaluation of each aspirant was based on criteria previously agreed upon by all members of the Screening Committee.
In his response, National Chairman of DC-23, Chief Senator Ighoyota Amori commended the committee for painstakingly and dutifully executing the assignment given to members of the committee.
Amori pleaded with those who didn’t make the list of three to accept the committee’s report and recommendation in good faith, as only one person can be Governor at a time. The five aspirants are all heroes and winners”, he added.
He noted that the DC-23 leadership shall continue to uphold fairness and transparency in the discharge of its responsibilities without fear or favour.
The DC-23, after the adoption of the report, called on political leaders and stakeholders across the state to queue behind any of the three aspirants as the decision to pick one among the three now rely solely on Deltans.
