The reconciliation committee set up by the Delta state All Progressive Congress, (APC) State Working Committee (SWC) to investigate the underlying causes of the lingering rifts, internal conflicts in the party, resulting to public disagreements and a decline in unity and proffer solutions to restore lasting peace has recommended former deputy senate president and former governorship candidate of the party in the state, Ovie Omo-Agege and the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo as co-chairmen of the leadership council of the part to be set up.
HardReporters reliably gathered that the reconciliation committee in its report identified a battle of supremacy between the two actors, resulting in the lingering crisis bedeviling the party in the state and therefore recommended the establishment of what it called “Delta APC Leadership Council” in the party with the two actors, Omo-Agege and the Keyamo serving as co-chairmen in a bid to curb the lingering crisis among others.
The committee’s report which was submitted Monday to the national chairman of APC and former governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Ganduje, in his office in Abuja by the Delta Central senatorial district vice chairman of the party, Paulinus Akpeki has disintegrated the party the more in the state as the report is alleged not to be favourable to the Omo-Agege’s camp.
In a statement on Monday, the deputy chairman of the party, Francis Obigbor, who is parading himself as the acting chairman of the party and alleged to be protecting the interest of his boss and former deputy senate president and former governorship candidate of the party, Ovie Omo-Agege, condemned Akpeki for receiving the report from the Olorogun O’Tega Emerhor-led reconciliation committee on behalf of the party and presented same to the national chairman of APC, Abdullahi Ganduje, in Abuja.
Obigbor queried Akpeki for the move stating that “The Delta state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has distanced itself from an unauthorized action by Chief Paulinus Akpeki, the Vice Chairman of the Delta Central senatorial district, who allegedly received a report from the Olorogun O’Tega Emerhor-led reconciliation committee on behalf of the State Working Committee (SWC).
“We categorically state that Chief Akpeki has no authority to receive any report or present the same before the national chairman. His actions are a clear usurpation of power and a deliberate attempt to cause confusion within the party. Chief Akpeki lacked the authority to receive or present any report to the National chairman. I call on the National chairman and the National Working Committee (NWC) to disregard any report or related actions originating from Akpeki’s unauthorized activities. We urge all our party faithful and stakeholders to remain calm and not be distracted by this unauthorized action,” Obigbor stated.
In another statement to counter Obigbor’s statement and titled “Re: Purported Press Statement By Chief Francis Obigbor Claiming To Be Acting State Chairman”, signed by the state publicity secretary of the party, Valentine Onojeghuo, alleged to be working against the interest of the former deputy senate president and the party’s former governorship candidate, Omo-Agege and obtained by HardReporters admonished the self acclaimed acting chairman of the party to desist from addressing himself as such.
“The attention of the state chairman, Elder Omeni Sobotie has been drawn to a press statement purportedly signed and released by Chief Francis Obigbor deputy state chairman claiming to be the acting state chairman of the party in flagrant disregard of the provisions of the constitution of the party and without due process and authorization by the state chairman.
“For the avoidance of doubt and purpose of clarity, Chief Francis Obigbor is NOT the acting state chairman as the state chairman Elder Omeni Sobotie had expressly informed members of the state Working Committee SWC of his official resumption of duty in a letter dated 2nd of December, 2024 that was copiously made available to the general public.
“In consequence of the above, the fallacious continuous claims of the Chief Francis Obigbor deputy state chairman to be the acting state chairman, aside its ludicrity, is an aberration that is criminal in nature and also a gross violation of Article 21:2 (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) of the party’s constitution that warrants severe disciplinary measures if not terminated forthwith. Chief Francis Obigbor is sternly warned to desist with such press release claiming to be the acting state chairman henceforth. The Party therefore seizes this opportunity to inform the general public to disregard any such press releases or statements by Chief Francis Obigbor as acting state chairman as same is designed to achieve mischief and bring the reputation of the party into public opprobrium,”
Speaking with HardReporters, one of the national officials of the party and member of the National Working Committee (NWC) who pleaded for anonymity queried that “What is wrong if the Delta state APC chairman, Omeni Sobotie delegates Paulinus Akpeki to receive the reconciliation committee report on his behalf and submit same to the national chairman of our party, what’s bad about that.?. I have seen and read the committee’s report. The obvious truth is that the content of the report is causing the jittering across the party in Delta, because some persons don’t want the report to see the light of the day and I can tell you for free that the national chairman of the party was so happy receiving the report on Monday.
“The report is about uniting the party. The party is so divided and the committee came up with a report identifying root causes of the lingering crisis in the party. The issue is, it’s only one man that is claiming leadership of the party in the state and other people are not accepting him as a leader. Former deputy senate president and former governorship candidate of the party, Ovie Omo-Agege and the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo feels that they are both leaders of the party and people are playing allegiance to different people so the report is nothing but about the unity of the party.
“The committee has recommended that, having identified the duo, Omo-Agege and Keyamo as the major cause of crisis in the party following their battle for supremacy. Now, Omo-Agege and Keyamo will be co-chairmen of the leadership council of the party as recommended in the report and in that way, people who are supporting Keyamo will be happy and those supporting Omo-Agege will be happy too and both of them can jointly manage the affairs of the party in the state. But the truth is that, Omo-Agege faction apparently don’t want such because they feel that will compromise his ability to control the party, so I don’t know why they want only one faction of the party to represent the party.
“With verifiable information before the national working committee of the party, the state deputy chairman, Francis Obigbor is on the side of Omo-Agege and working for Omo-Agege’s interest, he was in the committee but refused to cooperate, refused to sign the final report and he was positioning himself to receive the report and possibly destroy it so that it won’t get to the national chairman of the party. You know when they zoned the deputy chairman and chairman, chairman was zoned to Delta Central and deputy chairman was zoned to Delta North and each zoning is for four years, so let’s assume, if the chairman is incapacitated, the next chairman is to come from Delta Central, so Delta North cannot change the zoning when the four years tenure of the chairman has not elapsed and Obigbor cannot be an acting chairman and still remain a deputy chairman.
“We are fully aware that the deputy chairman, Obigbor didn’t support the reconciliation committee and if he gets the report of the committee, it will not see the light of the day as a result, the state chairman , Sobotie then delegated Chief Paulinus Akpeki to represent him and act on his behalf to receive the report and after receiving the report, the state chairman further delegated Akpeki to submit it to the APC national chairman in Abuja, so what are they really crying over now. All they want is, they don’t want that report to see the light of the day and you know the deputy chairman is Omo-Agege’s anchor man in the party’s SWC since Omo-Agege fell out with Sobotie.”, our source stated.
Meanwhile, a copy of the report of the Olorogun O’Tega Emerhor-led APC reconciliation committee, exclusively obtained by HardReporters at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, has identified distrust, disunity, battle for supremacy over who controls the party in the state between Omo-Agege and Keyamo.
The committee report which identified battle for supremacy between the former deputy senate president Ovie Omo-Agege and
the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo as the root cause of the lingering crisis bedeviling the party in the state among other things recommended the establishment of what it called “Delta APC leadership council” in the party with the two actors, immediate past governorship candidate, Omo-Agege and the current Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Keyamo as co-chairmen.
The committee report which recommended among other things and read in parts noted that “Delta APC do not have a governor and therefore do not have a clearly defined state party leader. With many leaders who are not united, each leader tend to act for his/her own and not for the collective interest of the party. To resolve this problem, it is hereby recommended for the establishment of a collegiate leadership for the state to be known as the Delta APC Leadership Council. The leadership of the council shall compose of the immediate past governorship candidate of the party and the current Honourable Minister as Co-chairmen. A secretary to council shall be designated/elected from among members at the inaugural meeting. The secretary shall come from a senatorial district different from those of the Co-chairmen.
“Delta APC is disunited and weak. The following are majorly responsible, there are many strong and well known leaders in Delta APC. Unfortunately, these leaders are distrustful of each other, lead various camps, groups or tendencies within the party and do not work together. The party members and faithful are followers of the disunited leaders. They take directives from them and are therefore equally divided and suspicious of each other. The State Working Committee (SWC), is not in position to provide the leadership required to unite the leaders and members of the party because it’s membership are also divided and distrustful of each other and consequently, the SWC is equally weak. Moreover, the SWC suffers from its faulty composition. it was never a product of an inclusive congress. Many of the leaders, therefore, do not feel any sense of attachment or ownership towards the SWC.
“Disagreement/disunity during the committee meetings at the senatorial districts, several key issues emerged from both the written and oral submissions. These issues include apparent distrust, disunity and disagreement among party leaders which cascaded down the party line and structure at all levels in the state creating crevices among members who ultimately find themselves in different factions, tendencies and camps controlled by different aggrieved leaders who have individual political interests which is in conflict with the overall party interest for victory at the general elections of 2023.
“Imposition of party officials and candidates members also raised concerns about the lack of internal democratic processes in selecting party officials and candidates leading to imposition, widespread dissatisfaction, disaffection and the alienation of some party loyalists. The top-bottom approach in selecting officials and candidates without broad consultations alienated both members and supporters, reducing enthusiasm thus support for the party at the elections. The submissions highlighted a pervasive absence of cooperation amongst party stakeholders, resulting in fragmented and dwindling interest before the general elections which invariably affected the party campaign efforts, inability to present a united front and resultant poor outing at the general elections of 2023.”, the report among other things identified and recommended.
