Ahead of Saturday’s gover­norship election scheduled for March 18, elder states­man and leader of Pan Ni­ger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Edwin Clark, has declared his blessing for Ken Pella, the Labour Party’s (LP) gubernatorial candidate in Delta State.

This is even as Pela said that the chances of Labour Party winning Delta State on Saturday is very bright, adding that the Independent National Electoral Commis­sion (INEC) acted with im­punity for not transmitting presidential election results as it was supposed to do.

Clark, who gave his bless­ing to Pela when he paid a courtesy call on him in Abu­ja, said, “You will have my blessings and my sons are in the field, whoever follow the process and wins is my governor.

“My hope, whoever be­comes the governor of Delta State, my home state, should be a straight forward person, competent, respect­ed and good character, not person that will eat our money at the expense of the state. Nothing can prevent me from giving my blessing, so God will therefore guide you.”

Fielding questions from newsmen, Pela said that this election circle is differ­ent, as power resides with the people, adding that the chances of Labour Party is bright because the people are solidly behind them.

The Delta Labour Party governorship candidate, who said that the blessing of Clark to him was more than words, mocked the ruling party in the state that was beaten by his party during the presidential election.

He said: “The chances of Labour Party is very bright in Delta and I am sure that we are all aware that in the last election, the PDP, the ruling party in Delta,was beaten for the first time by an opposition party.

“This election circle is different, the power resides with the people. Our chanc­es are very bright because we believe the people are solidly behind us. We will win this election fair and square.

“We did not have any fear going into the last election, we felt with the new Elector­al Act, BVAS there was no fear and INEC promised us severally, but they did cer­tain things that we did not expect, they acted with im­punity, against the law they did not transmit the results as they were supposed to, we will not let that happen again. We are prepared for them this time.

“You heard what he said, he has given his words to someone else, but he gave his blessings to me and that is more precious than his words and I believe that this journey has been worthwhile and I believe that Deltans will hear loud and clear the message that has been sent.” (Daily Independent)