Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege has gave reasons for seeking to contest the 2023 governorship seat in Delta State on the platform of the All Progressive Congress, (APC).
Omo-Agege who made his intention known during a rally at Federal University of Petroleum Technology, (Fupre), Ugbomro, Uvwie Local Area said that he is in the race to develop the state as several parts of the state have been grossly marginalized and underdeveloped since incumbent Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) took over the reins of power in the state in 2015.
At the well attended rally, the deputy senate president paid homage to the Ovie of Uvwie Kingdom, Dr. Emmanuel Sideso where he received royal blessing for his governorship ambition.
Senator Omo Agege assured the people that his developmental strides in all the eight local governments and communities that make up Delta Central would be fully replicated in the rest of the state if he becomes victorious.
Sounding optimistic, he said that the presence members of the APC national working committee and top heavy weight at the rally was a testament that the people are tired of the PDP which has ruled the state since the return to democratic rule in 1999 and are ready to chase away the nain opposition party away from power in 2023
Amidst a thunderous applause, he declared: “You sent me to the Senate in 2015 and I represented you well. In 2019 you supported me back to the Senate and I emerged the Deputy Senate President. I thank Mr. President Muhammadu Buhari for standing by us to be number two in the Nigeria Senate.”
He told the mammoth crowd that he has fulfilled all the promises he made to his constituents during his electioneering campaigns, adding that at present every community in Urhobo land has solar power street lights, new transformers, while several primary and secondary schools have been renovated in addition to many health centers and a new Federal Polytechnic at Orogun, defence state school and the approval of Nigerian Law School Campus in the state.
He continued: “We are also about to get a new Federal University of Agriculture in Aboh and many more. This is what I have done for my people.
“I therefore want to bring same to Delta North and Delta South. We will not allow Okowa to continue to marginalize us. Okowa has continued to marginalize the Ndokwas nation. Oshimili North and South have nothing to show.
“Youths left the university for over ten years without job. Okowa wants you to drive Keke (commercial tricycle) while his people use the best flashy cars. It is on this ground that we say enough is enough for PDP.
“This is why I want to leave my comfort zone which is Delta Central Senatorial district to develop the entire Delta state.
“Today, I am offering myself to serve the entire state.”
Quoting the former General Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Engineering Gas Workers, (NUPENG), Chief Frank Kokori, Omo Agege said that it was time to liberate Delta from the shackles of PDP maladministration, come 2023.
The party’s governorship candidate in the 2015 governorship election, Olorogun Ortega Emerhor remarked that Delta is ready to be rescued by Omo-Agege.
He lamented that since 1999, Delta State has been suffering from the PDP misrule, noting that God has brought Ovie Omo-Agege to rescue Deltans from the suffering.
‘Your suffering has ended because God has brought someone for us in the person of Omo-Agege,” Emerhor said.
Represented by deputy governor Onoja, Kogi state Governor, Yahaya Bello urged Deltans to vote Omo-Agege massively in 2023.
Imo state Governor, Sen. Hope Uzodinma who was represented by the deputy governor, Prof. Placid Njoku, spoke of his relationship with Omo-Agege, urging Deltans to rally around the deputy senate president for the emancipation of the state. ‘I want to congratulate all of you for believing in Omo-Agege. I think Delta State has a new governor and his name is Omo-Agege’.
For Chief Ayirimi Emami, Omo-Agege is the right man for the job as he has proven himself capable to handling the affairs of the state.
Also present at the rally were South South zonal national vice chairman of the party, Chief Victor Giadom, deputy governors of Kogi, Chief Edward Onoja and his counterpart from Imo states who stood in for Governor Hope Uzodinma and a host of other top leaders of the ruling party.