DELTA 2023: IT WILL BE A MISCALCULATION “IF WE GO TO PRIMARIES WITH OVER 15 ASPIRANTS” FROM DELTA CENTRAL ~ AMORI GIVES REASONS WHY DC-23 IS SCREENING GOVERNORSHIP ASPIRANTS

Ist November, 2021

By Festus. Ahon

ASABA-NATIONAL Chairman of Delta Central 2023, DC-23, Chief Senator Ighoyota Amori JP on Monday, said the 13-man screening committee setup by the group was to pick the best among those aspiring from the Senatorial District to govern the State in 2023.

Amori who was, Sunday, elected as the Deputy National Organising Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in a telephone conversation with our Correspondent, said: “We set up the screening committee because of the multiplicity of our aspirants from Delta central, we believe that it will be a miscalculation for us to go into the primaries with over 15 of our people who have already indicated interest to contest the governorship election to go and contest with people probably a senatorial district that has one or two aspirants.

“We need to put our house in order, we don’t need to go into the election with 15 or more aspirants. If we do that then definitely we are going to fail. So is an internal arrangement of people of Delta central to reduce their number. Not everybody actually who have indicated interest for the governorship election are really capable from the general assessment.

“Everybody cannot be candidate. At the end of it all, only one person will become the candidate so knowing this, we decided as an internal arrangement of the people of Delta Central; it happened in 2007 where we had over 10 people contesting for the governorship. We went to Osubi to do mock primary and one person emerged as the best.

If we had put that person in front in 2007, the primary election would have been tough, but every other person went ahead with the election so at the end of it all, our votes were splitted into A.B.C.D..F because up to eight of our people contested.

“The 13 members of this screening committee are people who have passed the integrity test. To be honest, till today nobody has criticised the membership of the 13 man committee, meaning that they have all passed integrity test.

Some said it is to early, No, early to bed early to rise. We will not wait, remember that the primary may be around March, April next year. So it is good that we start early now by reducing, by screening our people; bring out our best, to go into the primaries with others.

“A good Coach should be able to select his best players to go for any football match. A coach will not allow all his players, he will pick his first 11 to go. We are now looking at our first 11; first 11 in this sense is our best five, our best three and our very best one. We need our Lionel Messi or Ronaldo to represent Delta central at the primary.

“So we appeal to all the aspirants to subject themselves to the screening by this 13-man screening committee, because it is not compulsory that you must appear before the committee. The committee has all it takes to gather information about these aspirants prepare their report and to us.

“We will look at the report and of course take our decision. Our decision is to guide the entire Urhobo nation that they cannot all go into the primary against people who have just one or two persons. What we are saying is that we should do in-house screening of our aspirants, reduce the number to the bearest minimum and ensure that the bearest minimum will lead to the minimum requirement for somebody who can stand and represent Delta central, who can stand and represent Delta State, somebody who will be governor of Delta State not just governor of Delta central.

“We must be seen to have put out the best of the best of all aspirants. Like I said it is normal. It is normal for us to do this screening and this screening is compulsory. We are going ahead with the screening and nothing is going to stop us. The members of the screening committee have the authority to obtain information from anywhere about all the aspirants known to them.

“They can interact with aspirants directly or indirectly gather information and by the time they come up with their reports, we will make the reports available. But some people saying we are taking the responsibility of the party. We are not, this is our own responsibility, responsibility of the people Delta central, that does not stop the party at the state and national level from doing their own screening, but we must do our own screening.

“There is no election where people don’t do prescreening before screening. I have a case of a man whose four children want to become councilor, four of them from the same mother the same father. And I told the man four of your children cannot be Councillor at the same time. Of course the man went came back after a family meeting to present one; today that person is a councilor, that’s the screening.

“If 10 people go in for the primary and one person eventually wins what does that mean, it means the entire state has screened the candidate. They have taken a decision that this person is better than others”.

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