Elder statesman, Senator Patrick Osakwe, has confirmed that foremost Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), governorship aspirant in Delta State, Olorogun Barrister Kenneth Gbagi, has paid his dues, saying what remained was the party to vote him as its standard-bearer for the 2023 governorship election.
The three-time senator who aligned himself with millions of Deltans, described the former Minister of State for Education as a truthful man who does not doublespeak.
Speaking at his Asaba residence when the frontline gubernatorial hopeful paid him a consultative visit, Osakwe, political leader of Ndokwa ethnic nationality in the state, asserted: “Gbagi has paid his dues, it is left for the party and Deltans to support him.
“You heard what he (Gbagi) said, most of them are the things we already know he has done. He has not lied at all, 2023 is just few months away, and there is nothing you will hear again from a governorship aspirant that you have not heard from him.
“We have heard him, we will consummate all he has said. There is nothing he has said that he has not done, so those of you who are not convinced, when you get home, sleep and think and make up your minds.
“I pray that God will see you through because there is nothing that God cannot do. I pray to God that whatever he wishes for himself, God should pave the way for him to achieve it,” he asserted.
Earlier, while addressing Senator Osakwe and teeming supporters on ground to receive him, the industrialist who counted himself as one of elder statesman’s political children, appealed to him to pick the best among the aspirants to take over from the incumbent, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, come 2023.
“When you want to bequeath to your children, you have spiritual and leadership acumen as well as third eye to access all of them. Why I have come to see you today is to tell you that, sir, among all these children that you have in the political sphere, I am top of the children to contest governor in Delta state.
“So, this is a time you must take a decision as a father to get the best of your children to make sure that Delta is better, going forward than you left it.
“I have looked at the people jostling for the ticket of PDP for 2023, I do not see anybody among them, who have up to 10 per cent of my records in this country.
“My wealth were gotten from hard work and not monies gotten from government contracts. I have not taken contract from either state or federal governments. My capacity to industrialize and turnaround Delta state from what it is now to a better place is what I bring to the table.
“I restate that I have not taken one kobo from the state or federal government to do business. So, I am not wanted, so I urge our father, Senator Osakwe, to bring out his best. God endowed us with every natural resources in all the local governments in this state, we do not have reason to suffer”.
“My brother, the governor has done seriously well in infrastructure. For the first time, if you look at it giving the years Delta has existed, we have been more or less tenants in Asaba. Government was renting properties, they do not have their own.
“Today with the Prof Chike Edozien Secretariat Complex which has been commissioned, Okowa, that has loosened up so much funds. With the secretariat alone, among the numerous projects that Okowa has put in place, we have become a state and just that secretariat would have freed close to N1 billion in rent because we were living in people’s property and the state was not progressing.
“If you go there, you will doff your heart that in this country, if not beyond, we have one of the best secretariats in the state called Delta”, he added.
