Okowa, Omo-Agege fight heightens as aides join fray

• Omo-Agege’s assistant accuses Okowa of squandering N771b
• He’s a liar and manipulator, says Delta commissioner

Tirades between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State heightened weekend, after the Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege attacked Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s administration while declaring his governorship ambition.

At the declaration, Omo-Agege had come hard on Okowa, accusing him and the PDP of having nothing on ground in the state to show after being in power since 1999 and having received so much from federal allocations.

“We will not allow Okowa to continue to marginalise us. Okowa has continued to marginalise the Ndokwa nation. Oshimili North and South, nothing to show. Youths left the university for over 10 years without jobs. Okowa wants you to drive Keke while his people are using the best flashy cars, Omo-Agege had said, among others.

But the Delta State Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu, quickly called a press conference the next day in Asaba, where he responded to Omo-Agege’s accusations, describing the senator as a liar and manipulator.

Aniagwu said: “In the course of his (Omo-Agege) declaration, he displayed a very high level of indiscipline because he told the people he was going to start that event at 10 a.m. but he did not show up until 3 p.m., which means he does not even have respect for time.

“This is not a time to say you want to chase out a man who is not contesting with you. If you must chase, you must run after those that you are in the same race with because to the best of our knowledge, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa is not running the same race with Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.

“A man cannot be in a boxing ring preparing to knock out his opponent and then you, who is in a tennis court, is now preparing to win him. It is not the same game and that also further underlines the emptiness of that declaration.”

Shortly after, Omo-Agege’s senior assistant, Prince Efe Duku, reacted. He claimed that despite Okowa receiving N771 billion federal allocation, nothing tangible can be seen to justify the sum received. He listed over 18 major projects allegedly abandoned by the Okowa administration.

“Okowa does not want our people to remember these facts. He is afraid that we are set to reveal detailed facts of how he has received and squandered at least N771 billion from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC). He knows that he cannot justify the abandonment of these projects and many others. So his only answer is to rain insults on Senator Omo-Agege for rightly galvanising our people for action to correct historical wrongs.”