The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), His Excellency, Olorogun Barr. Kenneth Gbagi OON, was received in Okwagbe amid wild jubilation by his teeming supporters, admirers and party members who chanted celebration songs to herald his entourage.
The supporters abandoned their shops and other shores to accompany Gbagi, the largest private investor in the State to a joint town hall meeting with communities of Okwagbe Waterside and Okwagbe Inland as he blends into the crowd in their hundreds.
It was a carnival as indigenes and residents of Okwagbe, sang several jubilant songs in praise of Gbagi, at the Town Hall meeting held on Tuesday February 28th 2023, in Ughelli south local government area of the State.
Addressing the mammoth crowd,
Gbagi, an entrepreneurial expert, said the seaport sited in Okwagbe, when revamped, would boost the State economy particularly the localities.
He said his administration would be committed to ensuring that the Okwagbe port becomes fully operational as soon as he assumes office.
“When the British people came here, they sited a port at Okwagbe Waterside. We have a transshipment port in Okwagbe.
“I have told you people before, Okwagbe will be a business hub. Only one thing I want to plead with you people, I will come with expatriates to survey the area and plan what we will do and as people comes to establish factories and businesses, do not create an insecure environment for them.
“In Ughelli south, we have clay, all the way from the express to Ophorigbala, that we can use for the production of glasses, ceramics, vehicle glasses, bottles, tea cups and all kinds of drinking glasses and also generate jobs for the unemployed youths.
“The clay we have in Ughelli south can give you 40 ceramic companies. I give myself six months, I will revive moribund companies in the State because I know where they are.
“And I am going to ship those items we are producing from this Waterside. I am a businessman more than been a politician and I know what Okwagbe is entitled to get.
“From this our port, we will ship plates, glasses, tiles and everything we will manufacture with up to 20 to 40 companies here, to other African countries”.
While soliciting for their votes, he promised to post an administrator to the waterside, saying “order than using roads, I am going to ship rhem from here to every other parts of the country including Lagos, Rivers and Ghana”, reiterating that Okwagbe would become a business hub
He said he was not only interested in just building the port but he wants to make it active and fully operational.
He called on them not to allow politicians to deceive them, pointing out that his party, SDP floor the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Labour Party (LP) in the just concluded presidential election.
On flooding, he said, urgent steps would be taken by his government to tackle the challenge in a holistic manner and protect the State from future re-occurrence.
The former minister of state for education, who empathized with Okwagbe communities whom he said suffered most during the period, said that it was painful to see houses flooded with water, roads taken over by floods, while many homesteads literally became pools.
“The flood water that occured recently, made me so much to be afraid. Some of you saw me when I drove round Okwagbe, Ughievwen kingdom and everywhere, I was scared.
“If truly, there is government in Delta State, as supportive as Okwagbe is to the State government, flood water should not be a problem that should make us to relocate from our houses.
“The issue of the flood, Okwagbe, was worse hit. The trouble that Okwagbe suffered because of the flood water, no other community suffered it.
“So, I have taken a decision, Okwagbe people should be ready to release their areas because I am going to cut such drainages that, that same suffering in Delta State, will never happen again”.
He said as governor of the state, if there was any incidence of flooding under his administration, particularly Okwagbe Waterside and Okwagbe Inland, his words should be taken with a pitch of salt.
He equally told the people that he suffered same fate as they did, as he was sacked by the flood for a period of two months.
Assuring Deltans that flooding would be a thing of the past, he said: “I will resolve that problem immediately as governor of the state.
“We will use government and taxpayers monies to develop the State. Flood water won’t devastate us again” he reiterated.
Meanwhile, the President General, Okwagbe Inland, Comrade Ovwigho Julius, has assured the people of Gbagi’s people-oriented projects, on assumption of office.
According to Julius, “I have known Gbagi, for a long time now, as at the time I knew him, it was when I was in Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma, Edo State. Those we lived together with in the hostel, Gbagi was the one paying for all their fees.
“Several children he sponsored to school, are now PhD holders, I know them. They are from Okwagbe and Oginibo. Those in the university, Polytechnic, Colleges of Education, Secondary school and primary school students, Gbagi, was paying their fees.
“What he has told us, are not lies. Whatever he speaks from his mouth, he will do it. Let us give him the benefit of doubt, if we give him our mandates, you will not regret it.
“When he enters the position of the governor, he turn this place and Delta State in general to Dubai. What he says, he will do. Till date, he is still gives assistance to people.
“Please, let’s work for him, if we work for him, the flooding we are suffering in Okwagbe, will be a thing of the past.
“PDP and APC have made a lot of promises of seaport and dredging of the river, up till now, we have not seen anything.
“Let’s work for our own, a true Urhobo son, he has promised to turn Okwagbe to a business hub. When Gbagi, is there as the governor, I want to assure you that a federal university will be established in Okwagbe.
“The clay that he talked about, if you can prepare it and use it to prepare food, when expatriates add their chemicals to it, it will be used to produce various types of glasses.
“And they will be exported abroad and the expatriates we wept over that left us, will return.
“Don’t be deceived. Look out for the white horse, which is the symbol of the party in the forthcoming general governorship election” he stressed.
Also speaking, the President General of Okwagbe waterslide, Chief Joshua Boyi, reminded the people of the various developmental projects Gbagi, has attracted to the zone.
“The first road that connects Okwagbe, from Otutuama, he is the one who constructed it. That is how the difficulties people have in accessing that road ended till date.
“Chief Kenneth Gbagi, not because he is contesting election, he responds to any call, that is to show how he is willing to render help to his people.
“Let me tell all of you here, that whatever he has told you here, is correct and not lies. What he is capable of doing, is what he has told us.
“It is only correct that the votes for the governorship election should be given to him. I plead with all of us from both communities of Okwagbe Waterside and Okwagbe Inland and visitors, let us vote for Gbagi”, he declared.
Similarly, the Youth Leader who doubled as the Master of Ceremony at the meeting for both communities, Johnson Ojakovo, said: “the youths of all the communities have agreed to work for Gbagi”.
In same vein, Mrs. Onajite Ebero, who spoke on behalf of the women, said: “the women are all voting for Gbagi. The entire women, youths and men, let’s give our votes to Gbagi. As soon as he wins the election, we will get the dividends of democracy”, she insisted.
