The Senator representing Delta Central Senatorial district, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege has stated that the 2019 governorship election in Delta State will be based on the candidates’ capacity to win and not through inheritance by zoning.
Omo-Agege stated this at Abraka, Ethiope East Local Government Area during the inauguration of the Light of APC pressure group recently, just as two leaders of All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Frank Kokori and Chief Great Ogboru warned against imposition of candidates in the party.
While condemning those describing themselves as leaders of the party in the state saying, that what is important at this point is for the party to work and build a formidable party that can dislodge the ruling PDP in the state, not fighting for titles.
Taking a swipe at those describing themselves as leader of the party in the state, Omo-Agege said: “Some people go around with different kind of titles claiming to be leader of the party, if anyone should be leader of the party, frankly speaking, it should be me the highest elected political office holder of APC extraction in Delta State. I do not seek it as an accolade.
“We want to win the governorship of Delta come 2019 and to do that, we must put our best foot forward, you do not compensate people with governorship, you win and earn governorship and you only win it with voters, they do not allocate it, neither is it an inheritance by zoning.
Speaking also, the former Secretary General, National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas, NUPENG, and member Board of Trustees of the APC, Chief Frank Kokori said some persons in the Delta State chapter of the party are bent on perpetual being the party’s governorship candidate in the state with attempts to hijack the party.
The claim by Kokori is coming just as another chieftain of the party and gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party in the 2015 governorship election in the state, Chief Great Ogboru warned that if APC allows imposition of candidates in the party, it would face similar lose it encountered in the Warri South House of Assembly by-election held in April.
He said: “When persons from Light Of Labour, part of PDP, Accord Party and others were jumping into the APC, those of us who were patriotic and wanted change of government, where all joyful, but I never knew that some founding fathers of the APC in the state were not happy because they had plans to hijack the party, but the irony of it is that no one can hijack the party.
“Am a member of the BoT of the APC and I was elected by the 3 senatorial districts. I want to liberate my country; I want to liberate my own state. We want government in Asaba so that good governance and dividends of democracy could come to everybody but what I see from those who we placed to run the party is those who take the party as a professional chairman, secretary, treasurer and professional gubernatorial candidate.
“Light of APC is just a pressure group, today is a new beginning and it is the first step in going into Government house because we want good governance. With electronic voting which has been proposed for the 2019 elections, it would be one man, one vote and with that, who can defeat Chief Great Ovadje Ogboru?”
On his part, Chief Ogboru while advising the leadership of the party against imposition, said: “I was very surprised while listening to the secretary to the PDP national convention, who said that they have learnt their lesson, would no longer impose candidates and that they would work community leaders, I believe as an opposition party in Delta State, that is what we should be doing.
“If we allow imposition in APC like what happened in the Warri South House of Assembly by-election, we would face similar encountered in future cases but I believe we have learnt a bitter lesson from that election because we imposed a candidate.
“I have only one ambition for the APC which is that our APC should be a party run by the people of the state, I do not make a chairman from my bedroom but insist that the people must make their leader because only when they do this can they come together and plan with their leaders to effect change and that is the only time they can defend themselves.
“If we allow imposition in APC, on Election Day, our members would sit down at home and the worst thing that could happen to a big party is that the members of that party would refuse to work with that party on Election Day.”
