Two-time presidential candidate, Prof. Pat Utomi, has bowed to pressure and agreed to contest as governor of his home state, Delta, in 2015, News Express can reveal this morning.

“I want to let you know that Prof. Utomi has agreed to run,” one of those who convinced the erudite political economist said. “He informed me that a lot of notable individuals and groups had mounted pressure on him, making him to succumb. I’m sure that he’ll tow the Rochas Okorocha line. We hope to do a proper job of projecting him at the grassroots all over Delta State,” the source added.

News Express had yesterday broken the story of the pressure being mounted on Utomi by notable individuals and groups from Delta State to scale down his ambition and contest for the office of governor in the next political dispensation.

Utomi will most likely run on the platform of Nigeria’s second largest party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) or the mega opposition party expected to emerge from ongoing merger talks between the country’s major opposition parties.

He had unsuccessfully run as president on the platform of African Democratic Congress (2007) and Social Democratic Mega Party (2011) but joined ACN last year after discussions with the party’s leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who has led ACN to successfully retake the South-West from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in addition to taking Edo in the South-South and making incursions into the country’s South-East.

Utomi is the second Nigerian presidential candidate in recent memory to scale down his ambition to that of governor, the first being Owelle Rochas Okorocha, who last year successfully sought to rule Imo State after failed attempts at the country’s presidency.

Utomi’s candidacy is being promoted by his Anioma kinsfolk who believe that he has bright chances of victory when incumbent Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan finishes his second and final term in 2015.

Utomi, 56, was formerly Special Assistant to President Shehu Shagari during the Second Republic and is presently a Director of the famous Lagos Business School.

•Photo: Prof. Utomi.

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