Paul Osuyi, Asaba
The second term ambitions of Delta Governor Ifeanyi Okowa received a boost on Wednesday when the 465 councilors across the 25 local government councils of the southern Nigerian state endorsed him as candidate for reelection in 2019.
The councilors, as grassroots mobilisers, also pledged to purchase the nomination form for the Governor.
It is the second group that has so far promised to procure a nomination form for Okowa after the Governor’s online media team made a similar pledge a forthnight ago.
At a meeting of Leaders of the Legislative Arms of the 25 councils in the state and the South-South chairman of the National Councilors Forum of Nigeria, Pudiya Biakpara, at Udu, the councilors vowed to deliver their respective wards to the governor in the 2019 governorship election.
Addressing journalists at the end of the meeting, chairman of Delta State Forum of Councillors, Victor Ofobrukueta, said the decision to endorse the incumbent governor for a second term became necessary considering his infrastructural transformation of the state.
Ofobrukueta said the 465 councilors in the state unanimously resolved to form a formidable campaign team with a structure for Okowa through the one man/one vote campaign, and also to purchase his governorship nomination form.
Also speaking, the South-South chairman of the National Councilors Forum of Nigeria, Pudiya Biakpara, said Okowa was adopted as a result of the promise he kept by ensuring that local government elections were freely and fairly conducted by the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC) without the use of caretaker committee at the councils, a development, he insisted, has deepened grassroots democracy.
While passing a vote of confidence on the Governor Okowa and his Deputy, Kingsley Otuaro, the Forum also pledged their total support for their second term aspirations.