Delta’s All Progressives’ Congress (APC) leadership tussle may be gaining momentum, as leader of the party in the state, Olorogun Otega Emerhor, has set out a challenge to Delta Central Senator, Barr. Ovie Omo-Agege, to contest for the party’s senatorial ticket through a direct primary.
This was revealed in a statement issued to media aide to Olorogun Emerhor, Mr. Abraham Orotomah, on Saturday.The statement also accused the incumbent senator of verbally assaulting Urhobo elders and chiefs for persuading and buying the party’s chieftain, Emerhor, the senatorial ticket to enable him contest come 2019.
Wondering when Omo-Agege became a diehard supporter of President Muhammadu Buhari, given his association with former president Goodluck Jonathan, it penned Omo-Agege as playing a “con game” by calling his political superior “anti-Buhari”, assuring that Emerhor’s bid to wrest the senate seat from him will not waver.
Further noting the Senator’s role in fast-tracking the programmes of the president, the statement said this however does not make him sole supporter of the APC in the state.
Parts of the statement read thus: “Today, Omo-Agege has the fawning temerity to describe Olorogun Emerhor 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.
“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.
“Olorogun Emerhor 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 a PDP governor.
“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 said.
