Paul Osuyi, Asaba
For members of the Delta State chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to benefit optimally in the second tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari, a chieftain of the party, Paul Odili, has appealed to warring leaders and stakeholders in the party to close rank.
Besides, Odili stated that the party should be united in order to secure the revered position of Deputy Senate President for the re-elected ranking Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.
Odili who spoke in Asaba, further urged President Buhari to personally wade into the protracted crisis rocking the party in the state with a view to resolving it.
Odili expressed worries that if the age-long factional crisis was not resolved, it might rob the state the opportunity to produce a ranking-principal officer in the Ninth National Assembly.
He accused the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state of funding the intractable crisis in the state APC, insisting that the umbrella party was obviously benefitting immensely from the rancour in APC.
“If we had gone into the elections with a united house, we would have done better. I believe we are playing into the hands of PDP in Delta State. I believe that the PDP is funding the crisis; I mean, we have been in this crisis for too long. During the elections, a number of APC officials openly canvassed for votes for PDP.
“This whole crisis has continued to de-market the APC in Delta State. My appeal is that this is the time for us genuinely come together and reposition the party as the new government is being formed,” Odili said.
On what the state stands to gain from securing the position of the Deputy Senate President through Omo-Agege, Odili said such will become the rallying point to properly reposition the party ahead of future elections particularly in 2023.
“Am an APC chieftain, I may not have a vote but let me have a say. Had we won the governorship election, the issue of rebuilding will be the responsibility of the governor. So we need the position of the Deputy Senate President to properly reposition and rebuild the party ahead of 2023. The position will become the rallying point and the anchor to have a very viable and formidable party against the PDP in future elections in Delta State,” he added.
Investigation revealed that Omo-Agege who is currently enmeshed in Delta APC judgment saga, is long primed for the position following what is perceived to be his unalloyed loyalty to the Buhari-led government.
“Among the senators from the zone, Omo-Agege is the favourite of the presidency and the APC NWC. You will be surprise at the number of senators rooting for Omo-Agege even from the North,” a source said.
The source revealed that the presidency is aware that Omo-Agege is under attack in Delta ostensibly because some elements who didn’t want him to succeed knew he has been primed for the number two position at the Senate.
The source, however, said that the presidency was yet to see any barrier against Omo-Agege, despite claims which has been repeatedly refuted that his re-election was annulled by an Asaba Federal High Court judgment which sacked the Jones Erue-led Delta State executive committee of the APC.
It would be recalled that Omo-Agege had overtime said that the status of his re-election and that of all the candidates of the APC in Delta State for the 2019 general elections remain valid and legitimate as they are not bound by the said judgement delivered by Justice Toyin Adegoke of Federal High Court, Asaba.
Omo-Agege had insisted that the Asaba court has no appellate authority to override or set aside the valid, subsisting and final (being now unappealable) judgment of the Abuja court under which the candidacy of all APC candidates under the Jones Erue-led executive committee is rooted.