Ottah Agbo is committed to power shift to Benue South

…..Not Eyeing Deputy Governor Position

By Andrew Agbese

One is compelled to respond to the claptrap posted in the cyber space by one Owobi Josiah, not because it has the slightest tincture of credibility, but to guide the public against being fed with junk by those high on it.

There is no truth whatsoever that the Honourable Member representing Ado/Ogbadibo/Okpokwu Federal Constituency, Dr. Francis Ottah Agbo is negotiating with a PDP aspirant to be the deputy governor of Benue State in 2023.

The unintelligent thing about the post is the ignorance it exhibits; that Running Mates/Deputy Governorship Candidates are selected even before guidelines for primary elections are out, when the fact is that running mates are chosen after Governorship Candidates have emerged!

But for the records let me state that:

1. Rep Ottah Agbo is an ardent driver of power shift to Benue South and has been unapologetic about this. He was the first National Assembly member to receive and dialogue with BRM in the National Assembly Complex in that regard and he did so confidently and openly.
2. The Lawmaker is working hard with other critical stakeholders to present a unified Idoma Aspirant to go into the PDP primaries if the zone is unable to produce a PDP Guber Candidate of Idoma extraction by consensus! The Benue State Governor, his Deputy and all the Guber Aspirants fully know Dr. Ottah Agbo is fully working for the emergence of a Benue Governor of Idoma origin and by God’s grace and our collective effort, it will come to pass!
3. Beginning from 2007, when the Idoma people intensified interest in the No. 1 position in Benue State, the Reps Member has been supporting and committing his hard earned resources to the agitation for a Benue Governor of Idoma extraction at a time those accusing him now of being anti-Idoma Governor were defrauding the political class and eroding the Idoma brand!
4. Rep Ottah Agbo is closer to the Deputy Governor of Benue State and Chief Patrick Ogbu, two Idoma PDP Aspirants for the Governor than Hon Terwase Orbunde or any other Aspirants of Tiv extraction but because it does not serve the nebulous cause of those bent on pulling Hon Ottah Agbo down, they did not bring that to the fore in their Facebook post!
5. In addition to that, the Lawmaker is also a friend to many Aspirants of Tiv extraction, including Chief Mike Kase Aondokaa, Hon. Chile Igbawua, Mr. Terver Akase, Hon Herman Hembe etc. Why the hatchet men singled out Hon Orbunde in their Facebook claptrap beats one’s imagination.

Let us be reminded that Facebook doesn’t win election. It is laughable that people who do not know the road to their polling units now resort to cyberspace smear campaigns against a prized asset of Enone, when they should be working to be known in their constituency.

The Honourable Member won the 2019 election in 33 out of 35 wards and in the 33 wards, won election in all the polling units, and from all indications, the people will surpass this record in 2023, God willing!

6. Hon Ladi Ochai, though a supporter of Rep Ottah Agbo is not in his media team and has been expressing her political views on issues independently and freely and has never at any time claimed or inferred she was doing so on behalf of the Honourable Member. Indeed there were occasions where she criticized Rep Ottah Agbo as well!
7. Why Hon Ochai’s support for any Guber Aspirant should be linked to the Honourable Member is mere mischief and attempt to blackmail where no objective or serious issue can be advanced to sell their candidate. Besides, if one is to associate support to Aspirants due to affinity, one can say Hon Ochai is a sister to the Facebook poster and the sponsor of the smear campaign against Hon Ottah Agbo, so he should take responsibility for her political outing, including her support for Hon Orbunde Governorship, and not Hon Ottah Agbo!

Dr. Ottah Agbo, popularly called the Ozigizaga, the Moving Train, the FeedBack Lawmaker and the Cicero of Enone will never sacrifice the Idoma aspiration to produce Benue State Governor on the platter of friendship. Never!

Unlike the desperate politicians who see him as their political enemy, Dr. Ottah Agbo, doesn’t see them as his foes but as constituents. Rather, the Reps Member’s enemies are poverty, underdevelopment, ignorance and disease and has been confronting them frontally, in the last two years of his stewardship!

It is patently clear that those who are eyeing the House of Reps seat but are clogged by inexperience, fraudulent past, lack of maturity and are jittery over the stellar performance of the Lawmaker and have resorted to using proxies to sponsor such campaigns of calumny. But we dey laugh!

Dr. Ottah Agbo is committed to completing the good work he started in Enone if he wins again in 2023, and is not eyeing the Deputy Governorship position at all!

Finally, Dr. Ottah Agbo who has made history in Benue State as the first Lawmaker in his first term to be Chairman of a standing committee as well as Spokesman of the Minority Caucus is not distracted by the blackmail sponsored by fraudulent and drowning politicians. He has his hands firmly on the plough and will never look back. He is breaking more ceiling glasses for our long suffering people. With Ottah, Enone is in safe hands!