Okowa deny conniving with Omo Agege to truncate Ogboru’s ambition

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta state has denied making any deal with the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo Agege in 2019 to truncate the chances of the All Progressive Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Chief Great Ogboru to become the governor of the State.

The governor urged leaders of the All Progressive Congress and their followers in Delta State to look inward and find internal solutions to the party’s abysmal performance during the 2019 general elections, rather than restoring to unverifiable allegations and divisive politics.

Executive Assistant to the Governor on Communications, Dr. Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe, in a statement said the advice became necessary as a result of false and unfounded allegations trending on social media alleged to have been sponsored by certain leaders and loyalists of the various factions of Delta APC.

Gov. Okowa condemned in strong terms, the unfounded allegations cooked up by some leaders of the party to exonerate themselves and factions from indictment and sanctions by the Presidency, adding that the poor grassroots and eligible voters’ mobilization were responsible for the show of shame exhibited by APC and some of its candidates in 2019.

He noted that “There can never be victory for any party or candidate that solely depends on federal might in an election, as was the case in Delta APC during the 2019 general elections except for a few who worked very hard and won convincingly.

“It is very unfair for APC party faithful and some of their leaders to link Gov. Okowa, Chief James Ibori and PDP to their monumental failures at the polls in 2019, in the State.

‘While the APC and its various factions were in Court, some leaders battling for legitimacy and sweating it out to gain recognition of all kinds; Delta PDP under Barrister Kingsley Esiso, went all out engaging eligible voters, emphasizing on the huge success of Okowa’s Smart Agenda, and it paid off.

“More importantly, the Supreme Court in a recent verdict in favour of Gov. Okowa and PDP, stated clearly that Chief Ogboru and APC’s Appeal was a total waste of time, and that the Appellants (Ogboru and APC) failed woefully to substantiate their claims that the 2019 governorship election in the State was not free, fair and transparent.

“It must be stated again and again in line with Supreme Court Justices unanimous decision in favour of Gov. Okowa and PDP, that the 2019 governorship elections was free, fair and transparent such that the APC and Chief Ogboru ought not to approach the Courts to challenge the landslide victory of the ruling party in the state and the incumbent platinum governor.

“It will be recalled that some prominent Deltans and high ranking traditional rulers in the State passionately appealed to Chief Ogboru and APC to humbly accept the clean victory of Gov. Okowa and PDP; but all their superior counsel and words of wisdom were arrogantly ignored and at the end of the day, our royal fathers were vindicated by the awesome Supreme Court Judgment in favour of the Respondents.

It is on record that in 2019, APC governorship campaign was very weak, it started pretty late as a result of several internal petty squabbles and unfortunate battle for legitimacy and supremacy by some stakeholders in the trouble infested party. It must be noted that this kind of scenario cannot and will never produce victory at the polls.

The Delta APC and its leaders must of a necessity abstain from linking their failures to innocent Deltans and political actors who never played any role in promoting the endless leadership crises and political debacles in the opposition party; traced to her 2014 party congress in which Prophet Jones Erue emerged as State Party Chairman.