It is difficult to pinpoint when the political gusts turned against the one time political impresario of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Delta State, Senator Victor Omo-Agege.
The contradiction in the circumstances facing Omo-Agege is the fact that he is being subjected to a social media trial in the hands of those he not too long ago had at his beck and call.
The petition to the state chairman of the APC, Elder Omeni Sobotie accuses Omo-Agege of among others infidelity to the party and betrayal of fellow party candidates in the 2023 General Election.
The accused has yet to give his plea, but many prosecution witnesses who allegedly signed the petition against Omo-Agege have told the social media court that their signatures were forged.
Indeed, Omo-Agege’s political ascendancy in Delta State was crystallised when he emerged as the first senator from Delta Central to win re-election. His feat came following the death of Senator Pius Ewherido, arguably the greatest political disruptor in Delta State who turned the political dynamics against the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Delta Central in the 2011 elections.
It is remarkable that since Ewherido’s popular victory in 2011, achieved on the platform of the Democratic Peoples Party, DPP, that the PDP has been at sea on how to reinvent itself in that senatorial district. While Senator Emmanuel Aguariavwodo finished Ewherido’s impactful term, albeit on the platform of the PDP, the party has since then continuously failed in winning the Delta Central seat.
Omo-Agege’s two terms on the platform of Labour Party and then on the platform of the APC are about the longest stretch an individual has held on to political ascendancy in Delta Central. His emergence as Deputy President of the Senate, the first Delta senator to hold such a position, only strengthened his political confidence or brashness as some critics alleged.
Given his role in undermining the Bukola Saraki Senate during the 8th Senate, it was not surprising that Muhammadu Buhari’s political enforcers not only positioned Omo-Agege for the position of DSP, but also showed him favours that enabled him to swagger with bravado across the political space in Delta.
The constitution of APC structures across Delta State in 2021 by most accounts, was done in Omo-Agege’s bedroom. Given the natural proclivity of many Delta people to speak truth to power it was no surprise that a number of political actors in the APC refused to be taken in by the lordship of Omo-Agege over the party.
Two of those who swore to that effect were Chief Great Ogboru, popularly known as the Peoples General, but who as Omo-Agege consolidated was almost turned to a recruit in the APC.
Another was the former civil rights lawyer, Mr Festus Keyamo who went to the extent of terming those who emerged as party officials in 2021 across the state as Omo-Agege’s houseboys and house girls.
Given the acrimony that trailed Omo-Agege’s emergence as Numero-uno in the APC, it was not surprising that a number of party officials who despised the fact that he also took the gubernatorial ticket for himself worked against him in the governorship election of 2023.
Among those who openly came out to confess that fact was the late Dr Cairo Ojougboh who claimed being part of the conspiracy of APC leaders who worked against him. Even more, Ogboru who has the national record of contesting gubernatorial elections, despite his abysmal performance in 2023, surfaced for once to congratulate the PDP candidate, Sheriff Oborevwori, for defeating Omo-Agege.
The prediction of Omo-Agege’s difficult straits was, however, very visible just before the 2023 election. Days to the governorship election and while still serving as the Deputy President of the Senate, he was shell-shocked when one of his most prominent houseboys, Nick Ovuakporie, who he had promoted the state secretary of the party, surfaced at the PDP governorship rally to denounce him. Ovuakporie’s defection was a masterstroke on the part of the PDP, given that he was allegedly the pointsman used by the Omo-Agege camp to wrest control of the APC from his former rivals.
But the problem for Omo-Agege was compounded by perceived actions he took in the days leading to the election. The charges drawn up against him for which party members have commenced a social media trial of the former DSP include the claim that he hobnobbed with the opposition to betray the party in the presidential election. It is a charge that President Tinubu may not have taken seriously given that Tinubu received the former DSP on his own after party leaders conspired to squeeze him out during the controversial visit to Aso Villa last February.
Whatever, the principal reason antagonists in the APC struck the four point charges against Omo-Agege is their determination not to have him represent the party in the 2027 governorship election. This is well manifested in their charge sheet against the erstwhile DSP.
Whatever, the prospects for Omo-Agege in browbeating his former houseboys are not easy. How he positions himself as the governorship candidate with the prospects of running two terms in Delta State will be a tough nut to crack. That is, given the zoning tradition that has governed the state since 1999.