Delta State Governorship Candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, has been advised to tell Deltans what he would do if voted into office rather than his sustained campaign of lies and ignorance.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Olisa Ifeajika, gave the admonition at the Government House, Asaba,on Thursday while reacting to some statements credited to Omo-Agege.
He said that Omo-Agege was ignorant on due process principles because he was used to unorthodox procedures hence he was misleading Deltans on the propriety of the approval recently granted to the State Government by the House of Assembly.
Ifeajika said the discounting finance of N100 billion was not a fresh loan as alledged by the APC governorship candidate, stressing that due process, legality and accountability were the hallmark of the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa-led administration.
According to him, Omo-Agege was around this neighbourhood of Asaba and he was still peddling that rumour about N120 billion fresh loan. Our concern is that whereas we have explained what it is, and for me, Omo-Agege’s antics has left the realm of malice and mischief to envy and low-level understanding.
“It is sheer ignorance on his part and he has taken it to the level of street talk as you see in beer parlours, palm wine spots and newspaper stands where ignorant people discuss.
“He is demonstrating stark ignorance of what the issues are because we have explained that this N100 billion is nothing new.
“Governor Ifeanyi Okowa is just being a due process man, a law-abiding Governor. We said from onset that Governors of other Niger Delta states didn’t even bother to go the way of approaching the legislature for approval to spend one kobo of the refund.
“They discounted theirs and spent it the way they wanted without recourse to their own legislatures. But here, the Governor went to the House of Assembly to seek permission.
“As at the time he went, it was N150 billion he wanted and he articulated the projects that the funds would be deployed to.
“He did all of that and today almost all the projects listed have been completed, inaugurated and operational.
“The pensioners are being paid from the funds earmarked for them and the only reason he went back to the House of Assembly again in compliance with due process requirements is to inform them that yes, you approved N150 billion for us but we had to reduce it to N100 billion.
“We had to do this because the lead financial agent was a bit slow hence we came down to N100 billion. Besides, the bank that was leading the consortium has changed.
“For the purpose of records, we have come back to say we did not take N150 billion again but N100 billion and that the lead agent has changed.
“That’s why we went back to the House of Assembly; we have explained it severally and it’s not a loan in the first place and not a new thing. It’s that same old bridging finance.
“It’s either that Omo-Agege has continued to be daft and doesn’t want to understand simple thing that even a pupil in the primary school would understand or that he is continued in his tradition of being a pathological liar.
“He is going about deceiving people because lies are in his DNA like that of the APC. We expected that he should understand due process and law and we expected him to be applauding Okowa for following due process,” he said.
The governor’s spokesman lampooned Omo-Agege, who is Deputy President of the Senate, for always antagonizing the present administration amidst development in all sectors and gave assurance that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa would not be distracted by detractors whose mission was to score cheap political points.
The CPS said most of the projects captured in the bridging finance had been completed and inaugurated, and wondered why the opposition party would not embark on issue-based campaign.
He said the time had come for Omo-Agege to get ready to contend with the Governorship Candidate of the PDP, Chief Sheriff Oborevwori, at the election, pointing out that Delta was PDP and no opposition party could wrestle power from the ruling party in the State.
He said the confernment of the Commander of Order of the Niger (CON) on Governor Okowa by President Muhammadu Buhari, the APC leader, was an affirmation of his (Okowa) excellent performance in office, and advised detractors to work with the Governor in advancing the stronger Delta vision.
Ifeajika pointed out that all the bad roads in the State and the country at large were federal roads and called on the APC Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on federal roads, especially Delta and on the East-West road that had become their cash-cow.
He said that the dominance of the PDP in Delta was based on purposeful leadership and success stories of the party from 1999 till date and told Deltans to reject any party that brought hardship to Nigerians.
He said that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar picked Senator Okowa as Vice Presidential candidate as a result of Okowa’s excellent performance in public and private life.
“Okowa wasn’t chosen as Vice-Presidential Candidate on his own accord; he was chosen based on the credentials he possess and he towers higher than Omo-Agege in every facets of life, and by the grace of God, he (Omo-Agege) will be alive to see Okowa emerge as Vice-President of this country.
He reminded APC in Delta of the need to base their criticism on facts and not fake news.
“At the Senate where is number two man we have not seen anything he has done in the interest of Delta,. The only thing he has to his credit is mace-rustling and it’s a negative one. It’s either he throws in the towel now or face defeat at the polls.
“Our Governorship candidate, Sheriff Oborevwori, as we all know has been on ground in this state doing politics; he had been around well before Omo-Agege came.
“Sheriff has been Speaker for six years and counting and serving as the longest serving speaker in the state and Omo-Agege knows he has a formidable opponent in Sheriff Oborevwori. So, he should go and sit down and plan how he is going to face Sheriff at the polls,” Ifeajika stated.
