Ahead of the 2023 election, three leading governorship aspirants in Delta State under the auspices of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Kenneth Gbagi, Chief David Edebvie, and Sheriff Oborevwori, on Sunday, were shortlisted in the final report of the screening committee put in place by the Delta Central lobby group known as DC-23.
Gbagi, a former Minister of State for Education, is a renowned businessman, while Edebvie is the immediate past Chief of Staff, Delta Government House, and Oborevwori is the incumbent Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly.
The Pruning/Screening Committee of Gubernatorial Aspirants had on December 13, 2021 submitted its first report with Senator Emmanuel Aguariavwodo, Chief James Augoye, Edevbie, Gbagi, and Oborevwori making that list.
The committee was further directed to prune the number to three as encapsulated in the committee’s terms of reference, which was to look into their acceptability across the state, accessibility, integrity/credibility, capability, development strategy, and pan-Delta disposition.
The Secretary of the committee, Prof Sunny Awhefeada, who read the report, stated that after a series of meetings and screening, the panel recommended the Edevbie, Gbagi, and Oborevwori.
The evaluation of each aspirant, he noted, was based on the criteria previously agreed upon by all members of the screening committee.
The National Chairman, DC-23, Chief Ighoyota Amori, commended the committee for painstakingly carrying out the assignment.
He, however, pleaded with those who did not make the list to accept the committee’s report and recommendation in good faith “as only one person can be a governor at a time.”
Amori noted that the DC-23 leadership would continue to uphold fairness and transparency in the discharge of its responsibilities.
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 relies solely on Deltans.”
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