By Ovie Okpare
The governorship candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Comrade Sunny Ofehe, has charged Deltans to punish the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with their votes in the 2023 general elections in Delta State.
Ofehe, a world-class environmental rights activist, particularly bemoaned the state of affairs in his home state of Delta, saying that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa performed poorly as a governor of the oil-rich state such as Delta.
While also taking a swipe at the APC-led government of President Muhammadu Buhari, the activist charged the people of Delta State to punish the PDP and the APC with zero votes in the next year’s elections.
Ofehe spoke at the weekend at PTI Junction, Effurun and his Iyede country-home in Isoko during a reception organised in his honour upon his return from Europe to Nigeria to officially commence his governorship campaign.
He stated that he represent the new breed of politicians Deltans should cast their votes for in 2023 polls since APC and PDP have failed the people of the state in all ramification.
Received by mammoth crowd of supporters and party faithful drawn from across the state, YPP governorship candidate posited that APC performed poorly at the national level, while PDP-led government of Governor Okowa is “a total failure.”
He lamented that given the state of the country’s infrastructure, particularly the roads, which are one of the fundamental things any responsible government should provide for her citizens, APC should not be seeking for an election.
According to him, “Those who couldn’t use their federal power to advocate for the improvement of the East-West road, particularly the Warri-Sapele-Benin expressway, should be paid back with zero votes in 2023,” he said.
“Whether they refer to it as a federal road or not, the Warri-Sapele-Benin expressway’s appalling condition is a vote of no confidence in the Okowa-led administration and the federal government.
“What should I be doing in Government House if as a governor I can’t muster the political will and resources to handle that road and improve life for my people?”
“Take a look at the ecological crisis that Nigeria is presently experiencing; the current flooding is a man-made crisis. The federal government was aware of what needed to be done and what went wrong, leading to the flooding of the entire nation, but they were either adamant or unsure of what to do, or better yet, they simply wanted to be cruel to the populace.
“It is high time for us to start holding our leaders and government responsible for their mistakes and shortcomings.
“If I am elected governor of Delta State, we will assemble the top construction firms to construct and repair our roads, and if it is a federal road, I will fix it so that it alleviates the suffering and distress our people experience along the route. If I’m stopped, I’ll sue the federal government, win the case in court, and then file a new lawsuit against them once the project is finished to get our money back. You cannot continue to fly and don’t want to see the suffering people passing these routes endure every day just because one federal agency says it is a federal road and allows your people to suffer because of this.
“Look at Delta’s debt burden and financial responsibility issues. In terms of the state’s resources and revenue, is Delta really doing well? Our internally generated resources are hidden, and our debt load is increasing exponentially daily.
“We cannot continue to deal with the ongoing problems that have driven our people deeper and deeper into a cycle of poverty and impoverishment and still rank among the top producers of natural gas and crude oil.”
“I frequently ponder why we are being so wicked to ourselves whenever I see the infrastructure that our current leaders tout for a prosperous state like Delta.”
“We must reclaim our state. In order to elect a credible governor, we must throw out the mediocrity that has clouded our politics of ‘turn by turn’. We must vote for a credible candidate, such as myself, who is aware of what needs to be done to create a state that will be the envy of other leaders by 2023.
Ofehe expressed delight at the reception he received from party members at the PTI junction in Effurun and Iyede, his country home in Isoko North council area, saying that their steadfastness, patience, and shared sacrifices of waiting in the hot sun for him to arrive further demonstrate their willingness to alter the narrative.
He expressed gratitude to party members and officials for their trust in him to bring democracy’s benefits to the people, promising to restore accountability in government if elected.
The governorship candidate had earlier received a royal blessing from HRM Isaac Ovieimo Okpakpor, The Oba (regent) of Iyede Kingdom, who referred to him as an illustrious son of the Kingdom at the monarch’s palace.
