From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
The governorship candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in Delta State, Dr Goodnews Agbi, has said the party was determined to save the state from collapsing.
He said the state was suffering under the yoke of indebtedness, noting that there would be a vibrant turnaround in the fortunes of the state when NNPP takes over from May 29, 2023.
Agbi made this known on Tuesday in a statement to announce his running mate, Anthony Bolaji Alabi, who hails from Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s Owa-Alero in Ika North-East Local Government Area.
He said: “We are determined to bring a change to Delta without being oblivious of the challenges ahead.
“We are aware your state money, your own very money has been stockpiled to prosecute their perpetuity in office through their surrogates, and partners in pillaging the resources of the state.
“We will use every democratic and legal means to bring healthy changes to the state affairs. With the support of the downtrodden Delta people, we shall change the narratives.”
Agbi said the choice of Alabi as running mate would give the NNPP the strong footing it deserved to defeat the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.
He said Alabi was a member of the defunct Grassroots Democratic Movement (GDM), 1998, from where he joined PDP in 1999.
According to Agbi, “Alabi has been a well-known politician from Owa-Alero in Ika North East of Delta State.
“Recall that Alabi and I were the PDP chieftains who were the plaintiffs in the historic and celebrated ex-convict case that started from High Court, Bwari, in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, in 2004, where the judge ruled that there was ‘sentence but no conviction’.
“That case moved to the Appeal Court to Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that the case be tried de novo.
“Anthony Alabi faithfully stood tenaciously until the case was tried again from the High Court, Wuse, to the Appeal and ended in Supreme Court. The case took years to prosecute without Alabi wavering or compromising.
“Alabi was among the great Deltans like Barrister Moses Odiri and Barrister Andrew Oru who suffered so much damage to their legal practice because of the ex-convict case, and several other Deltans who believed at that time that Delta State people were not getting the dividends of democracy.
“Alabi and I are coming into the governorship race under the NNPP to change the state from the collapsing and debt-ridden state to that of a vibrant one amongst the comity of states. We will bring the state to its glory as the third richest state in Nigeria.”