From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
The Delta State Government has advised the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the recently concluded elections, Ovie Omo-Agege, not to waste his money hiring lawyers to challenge the victory of Sheriff Oborevwori of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in court.
The Commissioner for Information in the state, Charles Aniagwu, stated this at a press conference in Asaba.
“We urge our brother to save the money that he would want to use to hire lawyers and use it to either begin to rebuild his party that was seriously battered on account of the election or use it to make more impact in the various localities,” Aniagwu said.
Aniagwu urged Omo-Agege to join hands with Sheriff and the PDP, stating that the election was free and fair, and the victory cannot be upturned. He further added that the opposition party would have fared better if they had fielded Omo-Agege in the House of Representatives election.
“If you look at the results, APC would have done better by fielding him for the House of Representatives because by winning four local government areas, it would have quality him for the Green Chamber of the National Assembly,” he said.
Aniagwu dismissed Omo-Agege’s claims of electoral fraud and malpractices, insisting that the election was peaceful except in areas perceived to be the base of the APC candidate.
“You recall that some electoral officers were held hostage in Orogun II; you also recall that we have to shout that some other persons were trying to tamper with the result of Ethiope West. In other places, the election flowed much more peacefully,” he said.
Omo-Agege had alleged that there were several infractions during the election and vowed to challenge the outcome in court. However, Aniagwu advised him to channel his resources towards rebuilding his party.
“We plead with Omo-Agege to join hands with Sheriff because we don’t see how he is going to upturn this overwhelming victory that Deltans have given to us. We are saying we will work with him and other members of APC. And those who decamped, we do hope that in the course of time, they realise that integrity pays and they would purge themselves of that integrity deficit,” Aniagwu said.