BY ESHANEKP ISRAEL A. K. A AKPODORO
The Mayor of Urhoboland, Eshanakpe Israel, a.k.a Akpodoro, is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC at the national level and a pro Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, at the state level. This piece he puts together tends to dissect the politics of the oil rich state in the South South geopolitical zone.
In this article, Akpodoro is advising the All Progressives Congress against the ides of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege who he sees as pretending to belong to the progressives fold whereas he is actually a politician with greed.
For a long time, we in the progressives fold had watched the former Senator ride roughshod on the collective sensibilities of the Deltans right from onset. Flying the flag of the party in the Senate is not enough for a turncoat/stranger who migrated from the Democratic People’s Party, DPP to the All Progressives Congress, APC seizing the party’s structure for himself and not for the good of the party. He shouldn’t be supported for anything by the party because he refused to support its presidential candidate at the polls.
It’s on record that during the run up to the presidential primaries and delegate election at the Eagle Square in 2022, the former Senator who cornered the Urhobo section of the surveillance security contract did support overtly and covertly the aspiration of Senator Ahmed Lawan betraying the regional interest and the sentiment of Southern Nigeria.
The Orogun, Ughelli North Local Government Area-born Senator assiduously worked against our today’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and at same time reportedly instructed Delta State delegates to vote for his boss, Lawan at that epoch making event. He is a survivalist whose next meal is his major concern and not the good of anyone. We all saw how he collected the Urhobo section of the surveillance security contract by proxy through his younger brother and turned it to a family business. Till date, he has no single Urhobo son or daughter whom he is paying a dime. Even in his greed, he refused to spend the pipeline security award sum running into hundreds of millions of naira on Delta voters due to greed and that led him to lose out from the election.
The emergence of the then presidential candidate of the APC didn’t sway the man in whose veins perfidy runs to retrace his footsteps. Rather, he went ahead to ambush the presidential candidate at the polls. It is true that Omo-Agege didn’t feature in any advertorial/bill board with President Tinubu rather he gave his solidarity to the candidate of the Labour Party in the state for reasons of greed, desperation and avarice.
The emergence of Omo-Agege as the flagbearer of the APC in Delta State pitifully diminished the stature of the broom party in our state. The notable bigwigs of the party across Senatorial districts hopped out of the party they built before the former Senator berged into the party.
This is why Omo-Agege should not be supported using party machinery to get victory for him at the appellate courts, as suggested by a columnist recently. He’s notable for betrayal and only having a stint with the APC, and would be uncontrollable in power. Having incurred bad name for himself, the former Senator is unelectable, and that accounts for why he was able to arm-twist voters of just four local government areas to cast their votes for him, nilly willy.
Omo-Agege is not popular. He would wear the toga of an emperor in power, and greed will be taken to high heavens.
The current administration is the darling of the people of Delta state and governor. Oborevwori is loved by all, particularly his pro-masses policies and programmes. To remove for partisan reasons, a man who incredibly won his opponent through the backdoor may spell doom for the Tinubu administration and cast it in bad light. This administration need friends across board and the PDP government is one that is hands-in-glove with any progressive agenda aimed at bringing development to the people of his state and that’s a far cry from what we know about the former Senator whose plan is to gorge himself and family with the spoils of office at detriment of Deltans.
As a Senator, we saw him as a contractor, businessman, contract rustler who ambushed the good of his people and monopolized same for his immediate family, he deserves no mention in this administration.
The worst of Oborevwori is better than the best of Omo-Agege. They both have demonstrated their leadership prowess at different levels. While one is a former Deputy Senate President, the governor was the speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly. Their individual footprints in their different offices speak loudly about them. As a lawmaker, Oborevwori was never named in a missing mace scandal while the former Senator was enmeshed in such an infamous scandal. That development remains a blight to the image and I integrity of an Uhobo man.
My candid advice to the APC and its leadership is for them not to rock the progressives boat by delving into avoidable crisis. The stream of justice must be left flowing and unadulterated for it to achieve its noble course.
Mayor Akpodoro writes from Abuja
