YPP gov candidate denies visiting Ibori for endorsement

The governorship candidate of Young Progressive Party in Delta State, Sunny Ofehe, has met with the former governor James Ibori at his county home in Oghara, saying that the visit was not to plea with Ibori to endorse him or adopt him as his candidate but to play the elderstatesman role.

The meeting which was held in a closed door was in furtherance of Ofehe’s bid to become governor of the oil-rich state come March 11 2023 general election.

Disclosing the outcome of the meeting, Ofehe said he visited Ibori because the latter had a major role to play towards who emerged as the next governor of the state in 2023.

Ofehe said, “While addressing Ibori, I urged him to use his contact to ensure a level playing field for all the governorship candidates to showcase themselves and what they have to offer Delta State in the build up to the March 11 governorship election in the state.

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“I told Ibori, our leader, that there is no place in the world where four sea port within the radius of a 110km from each other and yet the state is not benefiting from it.

“We have what it take to compete with Rotterdam and even become the global hub of maritime activities. We have 165.12km of coastline and we are not dealing with the fishes and other marine possibilities that are there yet.

“I was in Gbaramatum Kingdom, we went through a lot of oil wells, flow stations, and manifolds yet the citizens of that place don’t have the basic water yet we are the largest producer of crude oil in this country. Because we are the largest producer of crude oil, Nigeria today is the eight largest exporter of crude oil.

“Delta State has same typography like Rotterdam which has the highest concentration of tank farms in the world yet do not produce crude oil and with the most bushest port in the world, with the right leadership the four seaports in the state can been revamp and put to proper use through FDI.

“When we were coming, I told my people in the car that the Ethiope River is the deepest single inland waterways in the whole of Africa. It is sad that we are not taking advantage of this commercial opportunities that’s open to us in this part of the whole.”

He said that when elected as governor, he would harness the commercial opportunities in the Ethiope River, the deepest River in Africa, and turn it into a tourists attraction centre for local and international visitors.