Omo-Agege Announces N200m To Flood Victims As Aviation Strike Reportedly Stalls Tinubu’s Visit To Delta

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate for president, disappointed party supporters on Wednesday who had gathered in anticipation of his visit to the areas of Delta state devastated by floods.

Tinubu was supposed to visit IDP camps in Kwale, Delta North, Patani, and Okwagbe, Delta Central, but his trip was reportedly hampered by flight delays brought on by the aviation workers’ strike.

The B-Courtney Aviation Service Limited (BASL), which runs the airport terminal, terminated the employment of 34 aviation workers without cause on Tuesday, prompting strike action by aviation workers working under the auspices of the Air Transport Service Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSAN) at the MMAs terminal. However, the strike was later called off as a result of federal government intervention.

An Omo-Agege governorship campaign council member who begged to remain anonymous lamented the “wasted time and energy” and described it as a bitter experience. 

She said she had to cancel all other plans to wait all day for the party’s presidential candidate, who never showed up.

“It was a very shameful and disappointing situation. After a long day of waiting in the sweltering sun for our presidential candidate, our party members were so exhausted and hungry that they didn’t show up. There was absolutely no appropriate arrangement. Unfortunately, despite the fact that our presidential candidate was supposed to be at this airport’s Osubi, he instead travelled to Ikeja to attend an APC stakeholders meeting without informing us. I hope it doesn’t happen again because today’s performance was shameful.

Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege, the party’s candidate for governor in Delta State, blamed the aviation strike for Tinubu’s inability to secure a private jet for the journey to the IDP camps while speaking to party supporters who had waited in the sweltering heat at the Osubi airport, close to Warri, for the APC presidential candidate to arrive in the state.

However, he also announced that Tinubu had donated N50 million in cash as well as N150 million in relief supplies to the victims.

His words: “Today, I am here wearing two caps. The first cap I am wearing is the cap of the governorship candidate of APC in the 2023 general election. The second cap is that of the coordinator of Bola Ahmed Tinubu Campaign Organisation in Delta State. The essence of this gathering today is to welcome our incoming president by God’s grace, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. The reason for the visit is to show solidarity, empathy and sympathy with our people as a result of the devastating flood in most of our communities here in Delta State. And also to provide leadership in our fight to uproot bad governance imposed in Delta State in the past seven and half years. 

“But today as you all know, because of the strike in the aviation industry, and his reason for coming here is to visit IDP camps. And you know, to get to the IDP camps today, you cannot get there by road. So we made arrangements to use helicopters to move our president-in-waiting and entourage from here to IDP camps in Kwale in Delta North, Patani in Delta South and Okwagbe in Delta Central. But we have received a message that because of the strike in the aviation sector, we are not able to get any of those helicopters to move him from here to those IDP camps. So we have decided to reschedule this visit. He has promised that he’s coming back.  Within the next couple of days, he will let us know; at which time the aviation strike would have been called off and we will have access to the helicopters that will take him to those locations.

“But he has also told me to make an announcement on his behalf. That because of the empathy he feels for our people, that I should announce the donation of N50million to Deltans who have lost their homes and source of livelihood and who are currently in IDP camps. This will be made available to them through the DG of this campaign, Elder Godsdey Orubebe. We are going to sit down and work out the modality on how this N50 million will be shared to each of the IDP camps to ameliorate the conditions of our people. We know that no one man can restore the losses suffered by our people. So this is Tinubu’s own way of showing love to the people of Delta State. 

“In addition to that, in my capacity as the governorship candidate of APC in Delta State and as Deputy Senate President and Senator representing Delta Central, I have also made arrangements and we have acquired relief materials worth N150 million. We have made all of the procurements, food items, cement, mattresses, rice, roofing sheets and more. And beginning on Friday, we are going to set up a committee that will move from IDP camp to IDP camp to distribute all of these materials to our people who have been displaced as a result of this flood”. 

Omo-Agege expressed sympathy on behalf of Tinubu and himself at Okwagbe, where he led the APC train to visit the IDP camps, and said the N200 million donation was a heartfelt contribution by both of them to ease the plight of the flood victims.

He urged the Okwagbe people to support the APC’s victorious campaign and declared that the people of Delta were ready to vote out the People’s Democratic Party, or PDP. 

Rt. Hon. Friday Osanebi, Omo-Agege’s running mate, led the team to the Kwale IDP camp, and Elder Godsday Orubebe, the campaign’s director general, led a different team to the Patani IDP camp.