Delta State Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, says contrary to claims in some quarters, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has no hold in the state.
Aniagwu said on Thursday, in Asaba that it would take a miracle for the Deputy Senate President, Omo-Agege to win the 2023 governorship election in Delta State.
He said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was very strong and popular in the state, despite the current court tussle over the party’s guber candidacy.
The commissioner said that over the years, the PDP had done quite well in the state having progressively won elections in all senatorial districts in the state.
According to him, the greatest disadvantage the APC has in Delta is not only the fact that Omo-Agege is not truly on ground but largely because of the very ineffective performance of APC at the National level.
“Senator Ovie Omo-Agege is someone I have immense respect for and he knows it because I can actually call him a senior friend because once in a while, we interact.
“He has all the rights to contest but he knows that when it comes to Delta, that it will take a miracle for him running on the platform of the APC to be able to win.
”This is because apart from the fact that Delta is almost synonymous with PDP, the performance of Governor Okowa in the last seven and a half years has dealt a very big blow to the APC.
“And the chances of APC in Delta State have been further worsened by the abysmal performance of APC at the National level, especially in areas of economy, education, security and their inability to manage our diversity.
“In 2019, they had federal might yet we taught them a lesson, a bitter one at that.
“In 2015, Okowa won 21 local government areas out of 25 and in 2019, in spite of their strength with Omo-Agege, Ogboru, Emerhor and all of them put together, Okowa won in 23 local government areas.
“He didn’t just win them in Delta North and Delta South, he went to their stronghold in Delta Central and won in six LGAs out of eight LGAs and what that tells you is that the PDP has continued to expand and deepen its roots across the state,” Aniagwu said.
On Atiku-Okowa’s inroads to Northern Nigeria, Aniagwu said that the return of Ibrahim Shekarau to the party was a good omen, recalling that the former Kano State governor has lots of influence in the state.
On David Edevbie challenging emergence of Oborevwori in court, the Information Commissioner said the party does not begrudge him because it was his right to seek redress.
“When somebody feels aggrieved and decides to go to court to seek redress that is not a sharp disagreement, it is within their fundamental human rights to so do.
“One good thing about Edevbie’s case in court is that he’s not challenging the sanctity of the primary election that produced Sheriff Oborevwori as governorship candidate.
“He clearly admitted that the election was well conducted and that Oborevwori carried the day and what that tells you is that to a very large extent, the PDP in Delta was able to reason in one direction.
“He decided to raise other issues which is within his own rights as a contestant and those of us in PDP are not begrudging him for doing that.
“We believe that in the course of time, he may either see reasons and decide not to proceed to the Supreme Court but even in the event that he proceeds to the Supreme Court, we will also not begrudge him because it is his right to so do.
“But at the end of the day, the party will not just take part in the 2023 governorship election in Delta, but the party will work as one party to produce a governor that will preside over the affairs of Delta on the platform of PDP”, Aniagwu said.
