2023: PDP, APC bicker over governance in Delta

From Jonathan Awanyai,Asaba

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, in Delta state have been locked in bitter war of words over the recent happenings in the State and who takes over governance in 2023.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) 2023 governorship candidate in Delta State, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege in a recent statement criticized what he described ‘the deplorable state of development indices’ under Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s administration.

Omo-Agege said despite receiving a whopping N770 billion in federal allocations in the last seven years, Governor Okowa has failed to deliver equivalent development to the people of Delta.

The Deputy Senate President spoke in a statement made available to The Oracle Today in Abuja by Ima Niboro, the director of communications and media strategy of his campaign organisation.

Niboro said alleged negligence of key economic and development indicators by successive administrations resulted in the “escalating crime rate, decaying infrastructure, sky-rocketing unemployment and overwhelming poverty that were eclipsing the state.”

According to him, Omo-Agege, “had considered these social indicators in the state and has accordingly challenged himself to commit to a career of working tirelessly on a ‘rescue mission’ by seeking the collaboration and support of men and women of goodwill across the state to join in the mission to rescue and reposition the state for economic and social renaissance.”

He accused the successive PDP administrations of sentencing Delta to “the path of backwardness and crippling debts,” but said Omo-Agege had developed a carefully thought-out roadmap to take Delta out of its current state.

“…the current PDP administration in the state had received over N770 billion from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), Niboro wondered why far less endowed states in respect to receipts from the Federation Account and internally generated revenues such as Ebonyi and Borno States would be pulling landmark development projects back-to-back while Delta was nowhere to be found,” Niboro said while urging Delta citizens to support Omo-Agege’s bid to “rescue the state, enthrone good governance and reposition the state as a leading economic powerhouse in the country.”

In his response, Delta State Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, said the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and his All Progressives Congress (APC) could not win elections in Delta State to give them governance of the state.

Aniagwu told a news conference in Asaba that Omo-Agege lacked requisite knowledge to govern Delta just as the performance of APC-led

Federal Government had made it very difficult to market any candidate from that party for the 2023 general elections.

He stated that he had recently advised Omo-Agege to concentrate his energy on things that could enhance his electoral value rather than chasing shadows.

According to him, not too long ago, I had advised the Deputy President of the Senate and APC governorship candidate in the state, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, to try as much as possible to stay with the issues that could help his electioneering campaign and not to begin to stray in directions that will not in any way advance his interest.

“I had thought that it was only those who speak for him that tend not to understand what the issues are.

“I read somewhere, where he was mentioning that we have received over N700 billion in the last seven years and that we couldn’t account for that and I begin to wonder N700 billion received as what.

“It shows that he does not understand how governance runs because the data that are available show that we have received more than that.

“I say so because he thinks that what we use to run government alone in a year is N100 billion; our wage bill alone, that is the recurrent side of the budget, is even far more than what he was mentioning,” he said.

The commissioner reminded the Orogun-born Senator that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa was not contesting elections with him in 2023 and as such he should not make Okowa the subject matter of his campaign.

“First he needs to be reminded that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa is not on the ballot with him in 2023. Governor Okowa is not running for any of the elections in Delta, he is not running to become a governor again, he is not running for any election that is limited to Delta, so its important that he begins to address his mind to other issues rather than chasing shadows.

“As a government we have been able to show transparently through the press in the last seven years, the many projects and programmes that we have embarked upon.

“Programmes such as the many platforms that we have used to empower our youths and a cross section of Deltans.

“Policies such as the ones that affects the livelihoods of our people and indeed projects that are quite outstanding such as the New State Secretariat, upgrade and concessioning of the Asaba airport that has made our airport quite outstanding among the comity of airports in the country.

“We have performed significantly in the capital side of the budget with many outstanding accomplishments in infrastructural development.

“As a government we have added value to the people of Delta whether they live in the creeks or in the upland so for Omo-Agege to say that N700 billion is not accounted for, you begin to wonder whether he understands the issues of governance.

“I thought that as a member of the National Assembly he should be able to do some calculations because there has never been any year where we drew up a budget that is less than N360 billion.

“If in all our budgets we have performed 100 percent in the recurrent part of the budget which is why we are always ensuring that salaries are paid as and when due and that we have also performed significantly on the capital side of the budget.

“All these projects have led to the many milestones we have recorded in road construction, building of schools, bridges and other infrastructure such as the storm water drainage here in Asaba and Warri.

“Many of these projects you have either accompanied us to inspect or to inaugurate many of these projects so you begin to wonder if such a person is capable of governing if he does not have a clear understanding of what statistics is all about?

“As we go into the electioneering campaign be rest assured that we will put up what our party the PDP has done in Delta. state for our people to be the judge,” the Information Commissioner stated