By Adadareporters
The deputy president of the Senate, Sen Ovie Omo-Agege, Friday, warned the vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and Delta governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, not to misappropriate the state funds to prosecute the 2023 presidential election.
Okowa was chosen as running mate by PDP’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Thursday.
Adadareporters reports that Omo-Agege is the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 guber polls in Delta State.
His position was made known in a statement by his director of media strategy, Ima Niboro.
According to Omo-Agege, the warning followed ‘credible intelligence that the 2023 general election is a PDP conduit pipe to loot the state’.
Quoting the statement, “It is sad that on a day the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, approved immediate payment of outstanding gratuities, pension arrears and death benefits for retirees of Rivers State Public Service, the Delta State House of Assembly approved N25 billion loan for Governor Ifeanyi Okowa allegedly to plant palm trees.
“This is coming barely 49 days after the embattled PDP candidate, Okowa’s yes-man and speaker of the state assembly, Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori, approved a controversial N150 billion loan.”
He claimed to have ‘sufficient grounds to suspect that these loans are being taken to prosecute Atiku’s presidential campaign’.
According to him, “We will not stand by and watch Okowa impoverish our people in order to enthrone a man who has nothing to offer Deltans in particular and Nigerians in general.
“If Governor Okowa had devoted half of the time he used in pursuing his vice-presidential ambition to focus on governance, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
He alleged that the Delta State government is owing the state retirees over seven years of gratuities, pension arrears and death benefits ‘while the state goes on autopilot for Okowa to pursue his personal ambition’.
He continued, “Most retirees have resorted to commercial tricycle, popularly called Keke, for survival; some are bedridden, others have resigned to fate or even died while waiting for the present administration to pay their entitlements after 35 years of meritorious service to state and country.”
