Delta 2023: The Permutations On Omo-Agege To Derail PDP Dominance

By Patrick Adamagu

THE emergence of senator representing Delta Central senatorial district of Delta State as the Deputy Senate President in the 9^th Assembly has changed the political dynamics in the state ahead of the 2023 general elections.

Senator Omo-Agege, a former member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had failed to get the party’s governorship ticket for the 2015 governorship election but defected to the Labour Party, LP to pitch tent with Chief Great Ogboru as the party’s governorship candidate where he emerged as Senator and subsequently defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC on whose platform he was reelected in 2019.

Though the in-house power tussle of the two factional executives of the APC in the state led by Jones Erue and Chief Cyril Ogodo almost scuttled his return to the national assembly after an Asaba Federal High Court upheld the Ogodo led executive backed by Olorogun O’tega Emerhor as the legitimate executive of the party in the state.

Though the Court of Appeal, Benin-City, Edo State nullified the ruling of the lower court, Emerhor and his group, Mainstream Delta APC who later went to the Supreme Court to seek further redress in the suit, withdrew their suit in a statement addressed to members of his group titled “Even a good fight must come to an end.”

He explained that he had to withdraw the case after appeals from critical stakeholders of the party including the presidency in the interest of peace and reconciliation after the 2019 general elections in the state.

Emerhor who admitted that he has been under intense pressure including Vice President Yemi Osibanjo to terminate the appeal at the Supreme Court in order not to jeopardize the standing of the DSP at the Nigerian senate and chart a way forward for the party in the state, stated that the earlier position for the harmonization of the party executives and federal appointments were put on the table.

He said: “Unfortunately, even with the best efforts of those who intervened to seize this moment as a last-minute effort to bring peace to reign, again no traction was achieved.”

However, the state chapter of the party pooh-poohed Emerhor and his group explaining that he “boxed himself into a corner and was making attempts to withdraw an appeal he filed at the Supreme Court as a face-saving mechanism.”

The party in a statement by its publicity secretary, Sylvester Imonina, stated that Emerhor is now stuck in a bind and is desperately trying to find a way to secure a soft landing.

The party also accused him of first requesting dialogue with the Deputy President of the Senate for negotiation adding that having failed to meet with the Senate Deputy President, Emerhor claimed he was under pressure to withdraw the failed matter.

With the suit challenging his candidacy out of the way following his emergence as DSP, Omo-Agege has become the new APC bride in Delta State and the Niger Delta in extension and has continued to host lawmakers from the area across party divide.

Though relatively early ahead of the 2023 general elections, fillers in the state are positioning him as the APC governorship candidate following the loss of serial governorship candidate, Chief Ogboru who abysmally as the party’s candidate in the 2019 governorship election.

One of such groups coincidentally from the Ijaw nation of Delta South is the Delta Ijaw Political Mechinaries who vowed that there is no going back on their quest to support the lawmaker in becoming the next Governor of Delta State come 2023

President of the group, Stanley Garry in a statement, while applauding him for influencing the Okwagbe/Ayakoromo Road project through Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, said: “Deltans are earnestly asking you to contest because your ambition to rule Delta state is predicated on transformational plans for the state.

“As a former SSG, Principal Secretary, and a technocrat to Delta state, you have all the technical experience and expertise to build star projects in every senatorial district that will stand the test of time and lift Delta state to a state of excellence.”

With the position of things, if Omo-Agege guns for the number one position in the state, he would be squaring it out with Chief Ogboru who has contested all the governorship elections in the state since 2003.

Others still interested in becoming governor on the APC platform in the state are Prof. Pat Utomi, Victor Ochei, Emerhor and a host of others.

The party’s candidate would be squaring it out with an Urhobo candidate of the PDP from Delta Central senatorial district following the zoning of the party’s ticket to the district ahead of 2023.

It is said that no one can win a governorship election outside the PDP in Delta State, a fact that has nurtured rumours of Omo-Agege possibly returning to the PDP. However, given the bitterness between him and the PDP that prospect looks unlikely.

However, those in the know in Delta know that Omo-Agege is still considered a loyal member of the James Ibori political family and is believed to have received support from Ibori in his bid for the Deputy Senate President. Ibori was also believed to have intervened in his problems with Senator Bukola Saraki in the 8th Senate.

However, the fact is that Omo-Agege never won an election, not even a primary while in the PDP. That fact makes it more likely that his options would mean to remain in the APC which despite the smear to his enviable name catapulted him to the position of the country’s number six-man, a position that has made him the Urhobo to occupy the highest political office in the land in the history of the Fourth Republic.

With that view in mind, the stakes are still out whether he would risk all that to confront Ogboru in 2023 or look even higher at the national front.

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