A frontline governorship aspirant in the 2023 governorship race in Delta State, Hon Efe Ofobruku has described as shocking and laughable purported media report that he has been screened out from the race.
Ofobruku in a statement on Thursday while dismissing media reports which say that he has been screened out of the Delta 2023 governorship race asserted that he can never be bullied out from serving Deltans as Governor.
The two-time former member of the Delta State House of Assembly has therefore called on his teeming supporters to disregard the report and rumour making the rounds of him being out of the race but work towards the Party primaries in 2022, stressing that victory was sure at both the primaries and the general elections.
The outspoken young politician from Uvwie Local Government Area said he came to the conclusion to continue his governorship ambition beyond Delta Central 2022 (DC-23) political lobby group after due consultations with leaders, supporters and party faithful across Delta state.
He said, “Just very recently precisely Monday the 13th of December, the said screening committee set by DC-23 to screen Governorship Aspirants who are members of the DC-23 submitted its report. Whereas I have not been officially communicated by either the said Committee or DC-23 of the outcome but was shocked by what I read from various news media as the content of the submitted report.
“For the avoidance of doubt, I Hon. Efe Ofobruku, the foremost Governorship aspirant on the platform of our party, the PDP, expressed concern and lack of faith in the composition of the screening committee ab initio. I have been Screened at different times by our party, cleared by INEC and contested and won elections and served full terms without hiccups. So it becomes a mere joke or smokescreen to say I was not cleared by a panel I never believed its composition and with no known criteria for justification of its outcome.”
Continuing Ofobruku said, “My participation in the DC-23 screening, even with an obvious conflict of interest in the membership was a way of giving what is Caesars to Caesar and that which is God’s to God. I want to state that my big brothers and leaders as well as some stakeholders who we have worked with and served since 1999 till date can not use the cover of a screening committee to BULLY me the only ambassador of the future and next generation of Delta State out of the race to Succeed His Excellency, Senator Dr. Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa.
“I am very well qualified to be Governor of Delta having served two terms in the Delta State House of Assembly, as Special Adviser to the Governor and even Director of Administration in the PDP Governorship Campaign for the 2019 general elections. I, therefore, wish to state unequivocally that I am still very much in the race for Governor of Delta State in 2023, as I am the hope and aspiration of majority of the youths and women of Delta State who constitute the majority of the voting population,” the former Lawmaker stated.
Ofobruku explained further that he is the bridge between the Delta of the past and the great future of the state, even as he pledged his unalloyed loyalty to the PDP led by Olorogun Kingsley Esiso and the hard-working Governor who is also the leader of the party in the state, Dr Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa.
“My vision for our dear state propelled by our Team, the Delta for Deltans movement ( D4D) remains on course and continues with wide consultations across the state”, Ofobruku emphasised.