Delta Guber Poll: Ajobena Blasts Omo-Agege, Uduaghan Others ...Highlights Why APC Lost in State

Following the poor outing of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the governorship election in Delta State, a chieftain of the party, Air Vice Marshal Frank Ajobena (rtd), on Tuesday lashed out on some of the party leaders in the state, accusing them of undermining the party’s overall interest for their selfish political gains. 

The former Abia State military administrator, while venting his anger over the party’s woeful performance in the 2019 elections, blasted Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, former Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, for putting their individual’s interests above party.

Ajobena, whose daughter ran for the Delta State House of Assembly, Okpe state constituency, and lost, accused Omo-Agege of sowing a seed of discord in the party allegedly to hijack the party structure in the state in preparation of his 2023 governorship ambition.

He also accused the embattled senator of conspiring against Great Ogboru, and actually had a hidden agenda to takeover or hijack the state House of Assembly that would emerge should APC win the election.

“This he did by handpicking party candidates without consulting other stakeholders,” a move he said pitched the senator against other leaders, “which eventually created crisis of confidence in Ogboru/Omo-Agege faction of the party.”

Ajonena, in a statement he personally signed and made available to journalists yesterday, said the statement was in reaction to his doctored interview published in some of the national dailies titled: ‘RE: The Internal Conspiracies That Destroyed Delta APC AVM (rtd) Frank Ajobena’.

While decrying what he termed one sided narrative presented by the journalist, the former Air force officer said: “It is unfortunate the media has decided to tell just one side of my narrative. For avoidance of doubt, these were expunged from the interview that l granted.

“Senator Omo-agege, for his selfish and pretentious support role for Ogboru's governorship ambition, conspired against Ogboru and actually had a hidden agenda to takeover/hijack the House of Assembly that would emerge should APC win the election.

"The people in the National Working Committee (NWC) saw through this evil scheme and advised Ogboru to identify persons that would be loyal to him to replace Omo-Agege's handpicked candidates for the House of Assembly.

“This opened another front in the grand conspiracy as to who would be in charge of the state affairs should APC win the election. This was the background to the internal rift in the Jones Erue/Ogboru-led camp. With the open endorsement of Ogboru's candidacy and his handpicked politicians of the state House of Assembly team, Omo-Agege went back to re-strategise on how best he could position himself to be in charge."

The ex-Milad, who was one of key supporters of the Prof. Pat Utomi governorship quest, also came hard on former state Governor, Uduaghan, and Kachikwu, describing them as PDP moles in Delta APC.

According to him, “The Minister of State for Petroleum, from the beginning, I made it clear to everyone that he is not an APC person, and not working for the interest of the party, and gave my reasons.

“It would be recalled that Adjobena in an interview published in national newspaper on Tuesday, was quoted to have said: ‘I have nothing against Kachikwu, but let the truth be told that the minister has for reasons best known to him, have not shown commitment in building harmony between and within the state APC family.

“As far back as June 2018 when the party National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, unilaterally appointed Erue the Chairman of Delta State APC, he directed that Erue should commence the tinkering with the rest structure of the party under the supervision of Kachikwu. Unfortunately, Erue did nothing but continued to operate with the controversial State Working Committee (SWC) that emerged from the his congress.

“To my greatest disappointment, the minister did nothing to intervene in the matter.  With the primaries drawing near, I sent a message to the minister reminding him of the urgency for us to have a harmonised exco. In response, he told me that he was in China, and that he was waiting to take a cue from the National Chairman. It was in this state of internal rift that we went into the primaries.”

On Uduaghan, the APC chieftain alleged that he came into the party and knew that he wasn’t coming to work for the party, noting that the former governor was deprived of the Senate ticket in PDP and only needed a platform to contest the senatorial position, and that made him to join APC.