ALLEGEDLY jittery over the direct primaries prescribed for aspirants jostling for elective offices in Delta State, the Chief Great Ogboru, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and Prophet Jones Erue’s faction of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has petitioned the Inspection General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris over alleged threat of mayhem and bloodbath during the process.
The Ogboru/Agege faction is said to have engaged a phoney pressure group, “APC Electoral Watch Group in Delta State,” to petition the IGP, alleging that the proposed direct primaries will lead to commotion and bloodbath in the state.
Tribune online gathered that the move was a sign of desperation and a calculated attempt to scuttle the conduct of any direct primaries in the state in favour of indirect primaries.
In a series of petitions to the IGP and AIG Zone 5 Benin dated August 14, August 20th and 21st 2018 through their counsel, Barrister Itse Elijah Wilkie, of the Wilkie Law Firm, the faction also alleged that the state governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa has recruited and created armed youth groups as the “militant wing of the PDP in Delta State”.
The group also alleged that the parallel APC faction and state executive led by Olorogun O’tega Emerhor/Chief Cyril Ogodo are moles in Delta APC.
It said the Emerhor/Ogodo faction was currently collaborating with the PDP state government to disrupt any planned direct primaries in other to ensure Chief Great Ogboru did not emerge the APC governorship candidate or that the Delta APC did not produce any governorship candidate to challenge Governor Okowa.
In the main petition titled: “State Sponsored Thuggery, Harassment, Brutalisation, and Threats of Assassination of Opponents of Delta State Government,” obtained by Tribune online, the group further alleged that part of the, “plot is to instigate commotion in any public event where any of their targets is and exploit the confusion in killing their target.”
In one of the petitions dated August 20th, 2018 to the AIG Zone 5 Benin, the group appealed to the AIG to write a security report to, “the appropriate quarters but not limited to: The Presidency, The National Chairman, APC, Abuja and The Directorate of State Security to the effect that: DIRECT PRIMARIES will be very BLOODY if the CONGRESSES in Delta led to several persons being killed.”
“There are already reports of mass acquisition of firearms by politicians and thugs to be used and deployed for the evil plot; Ubeji town in Warri South Local Government is a warehouse of arms for one senatorial aspirant under the platform of PDP.
“In Uvwie, the Effurun garage is the warehouse of arms of PDP for the upcoming elections.
Citing the case of the attack on Senator Omo-Agege while consulting his constituent at Effurun market some months ago, the group urged the IGP to overhaul the police leadership in the state, alleging that the command has put its relationship with Governor Okowa above its responsibility of providing security for all.
The group also called on the IGP to provide special police interventionist units to supervise the party primaries and the general elections and also “provide security escort drawn from force headquarters for Chief Great Ogboru.”
It will be recalled that Senator Omo-Agege on July 20th, 2018, supervised the conduct of Direct Primary for the Osun State APC governorship race, where he stated, when declaring the result at the party’s secretariat in Osogbo and was quoted to have said; “Direct Primary adopted provided a level-playing field for all aspirants.”
It’s shocking, according to political analysts, that the same Senator is now in the forefront of scuttling direct primaries in Delta State.
A chieftain of the party, who pleaded anonymity, said: “Omo-Agege and Ogboru are afraid that should direct primaries be adopted, their chances at the primary are very slim, unlike when delegates are used where they would be handpicked, since they assume they now hold the recognised structure in the state.”
“What they are doing is not too different from what a number of APC state governors, who are afraid of direct primary, are doing: fighting Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and national Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
“The difference in this Ogboru/Omo-Agege fight is too ingeniously and dubiously hide under security threat to hoodwink Oshiomhole to approve that indirect primaries be adopted for Delta State,” he noted.
The APC chieftain, therefore, called on the security forces and the party’s National Chairman, Oshiomhole to disregard the petitions, noting that Chief Ogboru has not participated in any elective primaries and Omo-Agage has not also won any major political party primaries, hence their fear to test their popularity in Delta APC
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