Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, Thursday said he has not endorsed anybody as his successor come 2023.
Okowa who made the clarification while speaking with newsmen, insisted that his name was being dropped by aspirants to gain some political mileage.
The Governor who spoke through the Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, maintained that as a democrat, he would not be interested in asking anybody to step out of the governorship race.
Saying that the aspirants were simply identifying with the achievements of his administration and the integrity which he had built over the years, he said; “everybody knows that the governor has recorded a number of achievements, and it is believed and rightly so that any direction he shakes his body will have a whole lot of advantage because he has been able to add a whole lot of values to the promises he made.
“If in that light because they believe the name of the governor is capable of giving them advantage, you can’t blame them, and we are not going to fight them for using the name of the governor because they are trying to associate themselves with what is good.
“At the end of the day, we are going to have one governorship candidate in the PDP. The governor’s pedigree is quite high and everybody wants to have that covering.
“If you go and meet him to say you want to run, you are being courteous. Naturally, he will not ask you to stop because it is assumed that you have accessed and you have the capacity to run.
“And if you believe that because he did not ask you to stop, that it is an endorsement, there is nothing wrong with it.
“What is important is that we hope and believe that all our members who are interested in positions whether the governorship or legislature, that they are able to play safely and with respect for one another.
“So the governor hopes that anybody who is contesting will use the most sane words; have respect for one another; recognize the fact that we are one family; recognize the need for us to sustain the development trajectory in the state.
“Not too many people are carrying money and jumping up and down because they believe that the best just have to come, knowing that the enormity of succeeding Okowa is a task that would require a whole lot of strength if the person must indeed command the respect that this administration enjoys at the moment”.
