Delta North APC picks Utomi as consensus ‘candidate’

Leaders, elders and stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta North senatorial district have picked Prof. Pat Utomi to square up with other governorship aspirants, including Chief Great Ogboru of Delta Central, tomorrow.

The choice of Utomi is the outcome of a rigorous search where party leaders from Delta North, in a bid to brighten the chance of the zone, thought it necessary to prune down the number of aspirants from the area.

Pat Utomi Support Hub (PUSH) 2019, the umbrella body for Utomi’s grassroots mobilisation efforts, stated that the development was expected.

PUSH spokesman, Engr. Leonard Obibi, explained that among the aspirants running for the party’s governorship ticket in the state, Utomi stood out.

“We are pleased that the people of Delta North district have, after an exhaustive exercise, succeeded in trimming down their candidate of choice to Prof. Pat Utomi. We believe that this will put the state in good stead in the pursuit of a New Delta that will begin to materialise, God willing, effective May 29, 2019,” he said.

Sources revealed that the process of picking one from the crowd of aspirants from Delta North began several months ago on two fronts.

“One of the processes was initiated through a conscious decision of the aspirants by themselves, and was moderated by Hon. Paul Adingumpu, while the other was overseen by the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, acting on a wider brief from the political leadership of the party,” the source submitted.

While Kachikwu’s process ended up with Utomi and Dr. Cairo Ojougboh as number one and two respectively, Adingumpu’s process, which focused on narrowing it to a singular choice, fell on Utomi as the preferred candidate.

A close associate of Kachikwu said: “As we speak, the minister has since communicated the outcome of his search assignment to the national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, and the national leader, Bola Tinubu.”