*N750b Idle In CBN Because Delta Govt Is Clueless
FORMER deputy senate president, Ovie Omo-Agege, has dismissed the claims of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State that he poses no political threat, declaring: “They are scared of me because they know what I can do to Sheriff head-to-head in an open election.
“I have done it before and I will do it again.”
Omo-Agege, speaking on a television interview programme, on Wednesday morning, June 3, said Oborevwori abandoned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) due to the fear of facing him in a direct electoral contest.
He insisted that his political strength remains unmatched in the state, pointing to APC’s performance under his leadership during the 2023 general elections, where it won two of the state’s three senatorial seats, including Oborevwori district.
Omo-Agege said then APC would have swept all the three seats, but for what he described as a conspiracy by former governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, and his political allies to imprison then APC candidate, the late Peter Nwaoboshi, during the period.
“In the 2023 general election, the Delta APC that I led won two senatorial seats out of three. In Delta Central, where both the governor and I come from, I secured 150,445 votes, while the governor managed about 100,045 votes. The numbers speak for themselves,” he said.
Ostensibly reacting to the governor’s accusations in an earlier television interview, Omo-Agege enthused that the over 240,000 voters that backed him in the 2023 governorship election remain firmly loyal to him and had resisted coercion to shifted allegiance, following the political realignments in the state.
He accused Oborevwori and his political camp of betraying a 60-40 power-sharing agreements reached following the mass defection of PDP leaders into the APC, alleged that the governor’s camp ignored the agreement by dominating the party’s structure in the state, noting: “They came in and wiped out all the APC members they met on the ground.
“These are the same people who fought for President Bola Tinubu in 2023, while Oborevwori and his group worked against him. They took over the administrative structures, but they could not take away the people. The organic support remains with me.”
He further claimed that his popularity was demonstrated during the APC primaries, alleging that he won in 84 of the state’s 85 wards and secured 109,000 votes against Ede Dafinone’s 7,000 votes, saying: “But as you know, they used state machinery to rob me.”
The former senator stressed that under the current political dispensation, he is fully loyal to the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
He accused the Delta State Government of financial mismanagement, alleging that about N750billion belonging to the state is lying idle in an account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), because the administration lacks the capacity to deploy the funds for development.
Omo-Agege described Oborevwori as “clueless,” saying despite unprecedented revenue accruing to the state, there is little to show for the resources at its disposal.
he stated that the state received over N3.1 trillion in the last three years, yet critical sectors of the economy and social services remain underdeveloped “because this government is just clueless. They don’t even know what to do with the money.
“There’s nothing on ground in Delta State other than three or four flyovers, as if flyovers are what governance is all about.”
