Delta 2023: NNPP Picks Alabi; Okowa’s Kinsman, Ibori’s Antagonist, As Running Mate

In a seeming reshapping of the political configuration in Delta State, the governorship candidate of New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Dr Goodnews Agbi, has picked Mr Anthony Bolaji Alabi as his running mate for the 2023 governorship election in the state.

GreenWhiteGreen GWG reports that Alabi is from Owa-Alero, the hometown of the outgoing governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa and is best known as the lawyer who prosecuted the controversial case of the penultimate governor of the state, Chief James Onanefe Ibori.

Agbi in a statement announcing the choice of his running mate hailed Alabi as a faithful man in the progressive struggle to save Delta State and would join him in the NNPP in saving the state.

Agbi’s governorship running mate was a member of the Defunct Grassroots Democratic Movement, GDM, 1998, where he would have worked under Okowa who was the GDM coordinator for Delta North and with Ibori who was a champion of the party before he became governor under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

However, Alabi appeared to have cut off from Okowa and Ibori in the early days of the government and became the lawyer for the plaintiff who dragged Ibori through the various courts in Nigeria to establish the case that Ibori was an ex-convict and not eligible for the 2003 election.

Affirming the moral justification for the selection of Alabi as his running mate, Agbi, the NNPP governorship candidate, said:

“I have today unveiled Mr Anthony Bolaji Alabi as my running mate in the Delta State 2023 Governorship race under the platform of New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP.

“Alabi has been a well known politician from Owa-Alero in Ika North East of Delta State. He was a strong member of the Defunct Grassroots Democratic Movement, GDM, 1998, from there he moved to People Democratic Party in 1999. Recall that Alabi and I were the PDP Chieftains who were the plaintiffs in the historic and celebrated Ex-Convict case that started from High Court, Bwari, in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, in 2004, where the Judge ruled that there was ‘Sentence but no Conviction’. That case moved to the Appeal Court to Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that the case be tried de novo. Anthony Alabi faithfully stood tenaciously until the case was tried again from the High Court, Wuse, to the Appeal and ended in Supreme Court. The case took years to prosecute without Alabi wavering or compromised.

“Alabi was among the great Deltans like Barrister Moses Odiri and Barrister Andrew Oru who suffered so much damage to their legal practice because of the ex convict case, and several other Deltans who believed at that time that Delta State people were not getting the dividends of democracy.

“Alabi and I are coming into the governorship race under the NNPP to change Delta State from the collapsing and debt-ridden state to that of a vibrant one amongst the comity of States. We will bring the State to its glory as the third richest State in Nigeria.”

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