An eyewitness told SaharaReporters that “When the APC aspirant for the Ughelli North/Ughelli South/Udu Federal constituency, Julius Akpovoka, saw that the primary election was already being manipulated by Omo-Agege in favour of his preferred candidate who is a Pastor, Julius went straight to confront Omo-Agege, and in the process, Julius slapped Omo-Agege and problem started".
Ovie Omo-Agege, the senator representing Delta Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, allegedly engaged in a physical brawl with another aspirant, Julius Akpovoka.
SaharaReporters gathered that the physical combat occurred during the APC Ughelli North/Ughelli South/Udu Federal constituency primary election on Thursday when Akpovoka, openly disagreed with Omo-Agege, and accused him of extortion.
An eyewitness told SaharaReporters that “when the APC aspirant for the Ughelli North/Ughelli South/Udu Federal constituency, Julius Akpovoka, saw that the primary election was already being manipulated by Omo-Agege in favour of his preferred candidate who is a pastor, Julius went straight to confront Omo-Agege, and in the process, Julius slapped Omo-Agege and problem started".
According to the eyewitness, guns were freely used during the fracas by armed thugs loyal to Akpovoka, as they shot sporadically to scare people away. The situation was, however, brought under control by the Police, who were deployed to the venue to restore order.
It was gathered that Omo-Agege had promised to secure the House of Representatives ticket for Akpovoka, but asked him to falsify his local government of origin from Ughelli North to Ughelli South. The reason given for this was that since Ughelli North had produced the senator, it would be unfair for the same local government council to produce a House of Representatives member.
A close political associate to both Omo-Agege and Akpovoka confided in our correspondent that so much money exchanged hands after Akpovoka was assured of the APC ticket in the Federal constituency.
Condemning the incident, a staunch member of the APC from Ughelli North/Ughelli South/Udu Federal constituency, expressed dissatisfaction over the manner Senator Omo-Agege and Great Ogboru were piloting the activities of the party in Delta Central Senatorial District and the state, in general.
"Clearly, the APC Delta State chapter is like a house that is divided against itself which cannot stand. More things have started falling apart and surely, the centre cannot hold. All these spell doom for the party, if nothing drastic is done to arrest the ugly situation that has bedevilled the APC in Delta State since the duo of Senator Omo-Agege and Chief Great Ogboru joined the party. We are just watching," the member said.
All efforts to reach Omo-Agege for reactions were not successful as calls put to him were not answered. However, an aide who preferred not to named, affirmed that there was indeed a fracas at the primary election venue, but denied the allegation of extortion against his boss. He also stressed that there was nothing like a physical brawl between his boss and Akpovoka.