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How Omo-Agege Is Changing Permutations In Delta
By Emmanuel Aziken
The emergence of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege as the deputy president of the Senate is redefining political permutations in his native Delta State.
For the first time since the advent of the Fourth Republic a sitting governor in Delta State is having to contend with a rival political figure in either national protocol or in a major political party.
No governor before Senator Ifeanyi Okowa had to look up to someone either in the party or in the national order of protocol.
The emergence of Omo-Agege on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC may have defined the political dynamics in the state given the dominance of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP over the politics of the state.
In the APC he has become the most pre-eminent figure well above other party members including the immediate former governor of the state, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan who had until now maintained his own leverage through his close relationship with national party chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
For the first time long-suffering oppositionists who had in the past clubbed around Chief Great Ogboru are having something to cheer. Some associates of Ogboru who had partnered with Omo-Agege since the 2015 General Election indeed can be heard saying “gotcha” as they say that Omo-Agege’s upliftment would give them the opportunity to upturn the hegemony of the PDP over the state.
Such insinuations are further fueled by the senator’s close relationship with the cabal around President Muhammadu Buhari. It was at the insistence of the cabal that Omo-Agege was rewarded with the office of DSP upon his loyalty that was controversially climaxed by the mace-snatching incident in the 8th Senate.
However, such expectations that Omo-Agege would be used to decapitate the PDP, sources in Asaba say, betray the realities of Omo-Agege’s political development which is easily traced to the first governor of the state, Chief James Ibori whose influence still casts a shadow over the politics of the state across the APC and PDP.
Whatever Omo-Agege does, the belief remains that he is still being protected on ground by Ibori. He served Ibori in several high-profile positions that climaxed with his appointment as Secretary to the State Government, SSG in 2007.
GWG gathered that Olorogun Otega Emerhor who is disputing the Delta Central Senate ticket with Omo-Agege is now under pressure from the Ibori camp to drop the litigation against the DSP.
Ibori it was also gathered had also in the 8th Senate mediated between him and Bukola Saraki.
“Omo-Agege remains an Ibori man,” a former aide to Governor Okowa told GWG.
Meanwhile, it is still unclear if Omo-Agege will sustain his governorship ambition having become the DSP.
He had serially contested the governorship of the state without as much impact on the platform of opposition political parties.
He had generally been considered to be the frontrunner for the governorship of the APC ticket after the 2019 failure of Ogboru. Some sources, however, say that given the overwhelming dominance of the PDP in Delta that Omo-Agege can only sustain his governorship aspiration in the PDP a move that could also cost him the office of DSP!
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