Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State, has declared that some people in the Presidency caused the crisis in the Delta APC for personal reasons.
Nwaoboshi, a former chairman of the Senate Committee on the Niger Delta, said in an interview about the gubernatorial ambition of former Deputy Senate President (DSP) Senator Ovie Omo-Agege that the APC in Delta State was a united family until after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu won the election, when a leadership tussle reared its head.
He threatened to expose those behind the crisis and gang up against Omo-Agege, the party’s governorship candidate in the 2023 elections, from getting anything from the present government.
“The persons l vowed to expose have prevented Omo-Agege from getting anything from the present government. His only concern, which he informed me on a few occasions, is that he needs to be recognised and accorded due respect as a former leader of the party in the state.
“You remember when people were challenging him then, and I said Omo-Agege is the leader of the party in the state. I challenged them to a debate because I have been around. He is a former Deputy Senate President. There was no contest as to who the leader of the party was. Some people in the Presidency triggered it.
“Some people in the Presidency triggered the Delta APC controversy. The problems, or what you would define as a crisis in the Delta APC before the governor came in, was minimal. Of the two senators that APC had at the time, Omo-Agege contributed over 80 per cent to their being senators. He made them the party’s candidates. I said no, he is the leader of the party.
On Omo-Agege’s gubernatorial ambition, he said that, to the best of his knowledge, he is not running for governorship under the APC platform in 2027.
“I have advised him as a senior brother and someone older than him in the game of politics. I have told him he cannot run if he remains in the APC and the governor remains in the APC. He cannot win the party’s primary, and it will be difficult for him to win the election. I have had private meetings with him and apprised him of my position.
“I am talking about the party primary. It is difficult for him to change the system when a sitting governor is running for a second term. I have advised him, and I don’t think so based on my personal meeting with him, our former governor, Ibori, and other leaders,” Nwaoboshi said.
