Omon-Julius Onabu
The unresolved crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State may have taken a turn for worse as members of the party in Ika Federal Constituency of the state yesterday issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, to restore all the wards he allegedly hijacked during the last party congresses.
At an enlarged meeting held in Boji-Boji Owa in Ika North-East Local Government Area of the state, the aggrieved members symbolically pulled down the party’s flag as a gesture of their disapproval of the alleged dictatorial leadership style of Senator Omo-Agege, warning g that the looming storms of disaffection would sink the APC unless immediate steps were taken to thoroughly conduct a reconciliation of the feuding executive members.
Specifically, the members in a voice vote urged “the college of leaders in the state” to within seven days meet with the national executive council of the party to address the lingering disputes where some members were allegedly given the short end of the stick.
The college of leaders include Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Chief Festus Keyamo, Dr Cairo Ojougboh, Chief Great Ogboru, Hon Victor Ochei, Dr (Mrs)Mariam Ali, Dr Alex Ideh and a host of others, THISDAY learnt.
Addressing the meeting, the Delta North senatorial chairman of the party, Mr. Ifeanyi William Aghaulor, however, appealed to the APC loyalists to be calm and remain resolute as nobody can be manipulated or election rigged any more under the new electoral act, adding that the Delta State could not afford to miss out and allow PDP to keep its hold on the state simply because of attitude of one man, the deputy president of the Senate, in handling the the affairs of the party in the state.
Aghaulor said:”Two issues are on ground here: one, DSP Omo-Agege single-handedly hijacked all the structures in the state from ward to national level.
“A lot of persons want to run for election and if the structure is with Omo-Agege, can you defeat him? whoever he likes he will give it but politics is not played like that. Politics is a game of numbers, the people you see here are not borrowed.”
In his remarks, the chairmen of the APC in Ika North-East and Ika South, Mr. Sunny Onyejose and Ehima Williams Eluma, respectively, regretted their maltreatment in the hands of the party leaders.
They stated that although they all “fought for the party from the beginning,” they were being practically pushed out of the house they all built allegedly in favour of Omo-Agege’s kith-and-kin from Delta Central.
“We have people who want to contest election on 2023, but there is no room for them to do so again,” the local area chairmen.
