2019: Delta APC Leader Emerhor Blasts Omo-Agege, Vows to Unseat Him From Senate

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Tuesday, September 18th, 2018

Photo: Delta APC Leader, Olorogun Otega Emerhor

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The leader of the Delta State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Olorogun Otega Emerhor, has challenged the senator representing Delta Central Senatorial District, Ovie Omo-Agege, to direct primaries contest for the seat.

The primaries are scheduled for next week.

In a statement signed by Emerhor’s media aide, Aghogho Orotomah, and made available to journalists in Abuja titled “SENATOR OMO-AGEGE, WHEN DID YOU STOP LOVING JONATHAN AND START LOVING BUHARI?… Let’s Meet At Direct Primaries!”, Emerhor dismissed Omo -Agege as naive, churlish, childish, intemperate and vulgar.

The statement reads:

“Our attention has been drawn to Senator Omo-Agege’s naive and ill-advised diatribe against Delta Central Elders and Leaders of APC in Delta State who not only came to persuade but bought and presented the APC senate nomination forms to Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, OON, last weekend. The Elders and Leaders had also pleaded with Emerhor to accept the forms and run to replace Senator Omo-Agege as Delta Central Senator come 2019.

“In his childish, churlish, intemperate and vulgar tirade, the outgoing Senator launched a dishonourable personal attack on the Elders and chiefs of Urhobo describing them as malleable rent seekers, mere contractors and generally dishonorable men.

“He reserved even worse epithets for Olorogun Emerhor. But the most laughable was when he described him as anti-Buhari.

“It is obvious that Omo-Agege hopes that, by playing this con game, he can turn the tables against his far more superior and politically savvy opponent. He probably also hopes against hope, that by brandishing his recently adopted pro Buhari toga, he can dampen Olorogun Otega’s enthusiasm to wrest the senate seat from him.

“But if this were a strategy, then it is silly through and through. Everyone in Delta knows Omo-Agege to be an acolyte of former President Jonathan. Even though he campaigned on the platform of Labour Party, it is a well-known fact that Labour was in alliance with the PDP against the APC and together they fought a brutal battle against Olorogun Otega and pro-Buhari supporters in Delta State.

Continuing, the statement read: “We recall the last election like it was yesterday. We the pro Buhari supporters, were brutalized by Omo-Agege and PDP. We were bruised, but we were unbowed. We bled, but we soldiered on regardless.

“Omo-Agege and PDP gave as a name in Delta: Boko Haram Supporters Party. Nigerians may not know it. But in the inflamed passions of 2015, where a Niger Deltan, Jonathan, was on the ballot against Buhari, a Fulani , this was the equivalent of a death sentence.

“But as soon as Buhari won the elections, everything changed. Today, an Omo- Agege has the fawning temerity to describe Olorogun Otega and the growing sea of Mr. President’s supporters in Delta as anti Buhari, simply because he thinks this is how to hoodwink Abuja, and get an automatic ticket back to the Red Chamber.

“But it would not work because President Buhari and his team are far more sophisticated and politically discerning than Omo Agege and his ilk.

The statement noted that while “It is correct that Omo Agege has been linked to other courageous senators who are standing up to those in the way of the programmes of our President in the National Assembly, this doesn’t crown him as the only supporter of Mr President in Delta State.

“When Omo Agege vaingloriously seeks to take credit for stopping the amendment to the sequence of elections, and boasts about being the one that that ensured our President’s election comes first, is he not only being clever by half? Was it he that gave our President the presence of mind not to sign the electoral bill, a bill fraught with errors and sheer legislative mischief?

“Is he unaware that even the courts struck down the proposed sequence of elections? So on what grounds does Senator Omo-Agege arrogate saving President Buhari’s presidency to himself and his so-called courageous and fearless grandstanding?

“And talking about winning elections, who between Omo-Agege and Emerhor is more capable of winning votes. Has Omo-Agege forgotten he ganered less than 10,000 votes in his Governorship bid in the 2010 rerun elections. And in 2015 when he rode on the back of Chief Great Ogboru for the senate run, would he have garnered any votes but for Ogboru?

“Even at that, did he win that election, or simply got victory through legal technicalities in court? Truth be told, has Omo-Agege truly ever won an election?

“Once again, in his consistent, wicked but small minded way, he sought to pitch Emerhor against our most respected National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

“Referring to the recent Delta State congresses, he claimed that it is because Emerhor failed heed his advice to follow Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s leadership that he lost the congresses to him and his group. Nigerians may want to ask:is this not an insult to our National Chairman, who we all know to be an avowed democrat and a progressive? Weren’t the congresses, above all things, about the will of party men and women in Delta State?

“We are certain that our dear National Chairman doesn’t accept this definition of how to win congresses.

“It is obvious that Omo-Agege is scared witless about the game changing entry of Olorogun Emerhor into the Delta Central senate race. He knows Olorogun Emerhor will soon rapidly terminate his reign of arrogance, rascality and foolishness, and provide a sanguine and refined representation for the good people of Delta central.

“So in sheer panic, Omo-Agege is frantically working all the levers to ensure indirect primaries in place of direct primaries. Why is the boastful senator who claims to “control” the party structure frightened of a direct vote that will test his popularity among Delta APC faithfuls?

“How come he is the only leader in Delta State APC who is afraid of Direct primaries?”, the statement questioned.

“Olorogun Emerhor hereby challenges Senator Omo-Agege to a contest for the APC senatorial ticket through a free and fair Direct primary. Let Senator Omo-Agege avail himself of this opportunity to prove that he can win in a transparent internal democratic contest within the party, rather than run around Abuja seeking an automatic ticket through indirect primaries.

“As for his ridiculous comments about NDDC, it is on record that Olorogun Otega is neither on the board nor an employee of the commission. This in contrast to the Niger Delta River Basin Authority where all advertised and unadvertised contracts miraculously transmute into Omo Agege’s constituency projects through his tight fisted reign as Supreme Contracts Controller.

“But if as Omo Agege claims, albeit falsely, Delta Central Elders are with Emerhor for NDDC contacts, does it not follow that no Elder is with Agege because he is the sole beneficiary of Niger Delta River Basin contracts?

“Even more intriguing is how Olorogun Emerhor suddenly became a chief Kwankwasiyan in the eye of Omo Agege and Omo Agege alone — the same Omo-Agege who planted Sir Richard Odibo as Kwankwasiya Delta State Coordinator, and then deceived the presidency into giving him political appointment in NPC.

“Why will a Senator resorts to cheap blackmail, conspiracy and rumour mongering in the corridors of power. To what purpose? Did Olorogun Emerhor do wrong in building APC in Delta State and graciously receiving Senator Omo-Agege as a 2016 joiner?

“Olorogun Otega is not moved by threats of “fire and fury”. Omo-Agege should reserve that, if he may, for our common foe, PDP ,who Olorogun Emerhor prays Omo-Agege is truly interested in dislodging from Delta State, given his previous relationship with them as SSG and Executive Assistant to James Ibori.

“For now, it will suffice for Senator Omo-Agege to climb down from his arrogant high horse and test his acceptance with Delta Central APC followers in the upcoming senatorial direct primaries”, the statement concluded.