Delta APC: AVM Ajobena Bares His Fangs Against Uduaghan, Omo-Agege, Emerhor, Kachikwu

Elderstatesman and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Delta State, Air Vice Marshal Frank Ajobena (Rtd), has taken some leaders of his party to the cleaners over what transpired in the 2019 governorship race that led to the woeful defeat of his party.

In a statement made available to BIGPEN ONLINE, Ajobena bares his fangs against some leaders of the party including former governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor and Minister for State Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu.

He said that both Omo-Agege and Emerhor were more interested about their ‘selfish interest’ of governing the state come 2023 instead of working for the victory of the party’s governorship candidate.

According to him, Uduaghan was only interested in his senatorial ambition, saying his membership of the party was purposely for his ambition alone.

“Also, Uduaghan came into the party and knew that he wasn’t coming to work for the party. He was deprived the Senate ticket in PDP and needed a platform to contest the senatorial position and came to APC, exploited the crisis within, worked his way into relevance and pretended to be working for APC but was actually working for himself”, he said about Uduaghan.

In the same vein, Ajobena tongue-lashed Kachikwu for his failure to play leadership role to the party, saying that the honourable minister did nothing to harmonised the party when he was in the position to do so despite several concerted efforts for him to so do.

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

“I have nothing against Ibe Kachikwu, but however, let the truth be told that the honourable minister has for reasons best known to him, has not shown commitment in building harmony between and within the Delta APC family”.

As if that was not enough, the retired Air Vice Marshal came down heavily on Emerhor whom, according to him, claimed that a Delta Northerner must be the governorship candidate of the party, whilst he (Emerhor) was working secretly to subvert the interest of any candidate of Delta North origin who was in the race.

“I also identified Emerhor who pretends to be supporting a northern candidate but was actually working against the interest of Delta North. He created confusion among that group to the extent that they could not even come up with a candidate. He didn’t want any of them to emerge.

Ajobena who was a pro-Utomi’s governorship candidancy said, “At the surface, you will think he (Emerhor) was supporting a Delta North candidate but in reality, he wasn’t interested in any of them neither was he supporting Ogboru but was working for himself and calculating for 2023.

“He wants to be governor of Delta State in 2023 and wasn’t supporting any APC governorship aspirant for 2019. He has seen it that if Ogboru emerges, Ogboru will want to do eight years.

“So, to justify what he is doing, he claims to support a northern candidate. But in the same way, what is the guarantee that if a northern candidate emerges, he will serve for a term hence he wasn’t comfortable with that”, Ajobena said.

Furthermore, speaking on Emerhor claims of being a ‘Senate-Elect’ following the judgment in favour of the Ogodo’s faction of the party, he said the former bank executive turned politician would smell the seat as he was never part of the process that led to Omo-Agege’s emergence.

“There are two sides to the court judgement. One side of the story is on the legitimacy of the Ogodo executive. I believe there was justice in that direction.

“The other side of the story is on whether Emerhor should claim that seat, I don’t think he should take that seat if there is any way the law could interpret it.

“The reason is this, Emerhor worked against Omo-Agege’s emergence for the Senate and didn’t contribute anything and worked against him, but God helped the party, and Omo-Agege was popular enough to attract votes that earned him victory, the margin would have been wider if he had the support of Emerhor”.

He added that the APC was set to win the governorship election but the personal interest of the aforementioned leaders scuttled the party’s interest.

The former military administrator, in a telephone conversation with BIGPEN ONLINE Tuesday night, also alleged that Senator Omo-agege covertly sabotaged Ogboru’s governorship ambition and “actually has had a hidden agenda to takeover/hijack the House of Assembly that would emerge should APC win the election”.

Hear him: “It is unfortunate the press 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, conspired against Ogboru and actually has had a hidden agenda  to takeover/hijack the  House of Assembly that would emerge should APC win the election.

Continuing, he said, “The people in the NWC saw through this evil scheme and advised Ogboru to identify persons that would be loyal to him to replace Omoagege’s handpicked candidates for the House of Assembly.

“With the open endorsement of Ogboru’s candidacy and his handpicked would be House of Assembly team , Senator Omoagege went back to re-strategise on how best he could position himself to be in charge . He encouraged his rejected House of Assembly team members to go to court to claim their perceived mandate .

“This opened another front in the grand  conspiracy as to who would be in charge of Delta State’s affairs should APC win the election . This was the background to the internal rift in the Prophet Jones/Ogboru led camp”, he claimed.

According to him, a factional chairman of the party, Jones Erue, who according to him was unilaterally appointed by the National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole instead of him to harmonize with the other faction was basking on federal recognition to continued to operate with the controversial SWC that emerged from the Dododo congress.

He said, “It was against the background of these internal undercurrent of power struggle that I admonished that we go into the election as a united APC team while we wait for the court to decide who should be on the driver’s seat in  managing the affairs of an APC Government which all long suffering Deltans were looking forward to”.

The forementioned leaders of the party could not be immediately reached to comment on this report as at press time on Wednesday.