*As media report exposes Omo-Agege
*Says he pushes for own sister as INEC Commissioner
*Nigerians react
By KEMI KASUMU
The last may not have been heard about the intrigues that surrounded recent All Progressives Congress (APC) Senators’ unanimous votes against the nomination of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Digital and Social Media Aide, Lauretta Onochie, for National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commissioner (INEC) as the real reason is now unfolding.
This was coming on the heels of a report by Sahara Reporters, which revealed that Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, is pushing for the nomination of his older sister, Ms. Regina Omo-Agege for the same position the Senate – where he is second-in-command – claimed breach of Federal Character because, according to it, the space is currently occupied by ‘Delta State representative’
In the report titled, “How Mace-snatching Nigeria’s Deputy Senate President, Omo-Agege Is Pushing To Have His Sister As Electoral Commissioner, Influence Elections”, the online medium said it gathered that Regina retired from INEC as a Director with a questionable reputation.
According to the report, sources described her as a corrupt official of lNEC, who consults for politicians to do their dirty biddings, a shoddy character her sponsor, the Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege, believes is most like to be impossible with a integrity and due process figure that Lauretta Onochie epitomises.
Also according to top sources, Omo-Agege is reportedly doing everything to control the outcomes of elections in Delta State and the South-South Region, and to emerge as the state governor in 2023.
“He is checkmating the powers of some leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the region. He is nursing governorship ambition in Delta State so if he gets his sister to become a national commissioner to coordinate the commissioners that will supervise the coming general elections in the state, he can deal with other leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South-South region.
“The plan is to have his sister replace the infamous Ms. Lauretta Onochie (President Muhammadu Buhari’s aide) who was recently rejected by the Senate.
“She (Regina) does not have a good reputation in political circles as she is known for doing hatchet jobs for the highest bidder,” a source said.
It was also learnt that Regina influenced the appointment of her boyfriend, Dr. Mustapha Lecky as a national commissioner in 2016 with the help of the then Acting Chairperson of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Amina Zakari.
However, Sahara Reporters continued, it was learnt that Lecky’s bid for reappointment, despite being sponsored by Omo-Agege, was rejected because of a lack of integrity.
Sources also said Regina was known as an agent of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and made herself available to offer her services to any member of the opposition willing to pay.
But since 2015 when the APC came to power, it was said that she has switched allegiance to the APC.
“As for Lecky, controversy has surrounded him since his days in the National Health Insurance Commission (NHIS). Thereafter, he was known in INEC as a commissioner under the firm control and direction of Ms. Omo-Agege (Regina), who used serving staff members of lNEC to compromise elections mainly in the South-South and South-West,” a source said.
A senior staff member of lNEC disclosed that the Commission planned the deployment of electoral officers and other categories of staff across the states before the 2019 elections but the plan was cancelled by the Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, when he discovered that Lecky alone submitted names of over 80 members of staff to be moved across the Southern region for alleged election manipulation.
All these were said to be with the support and knowledge of Regina, Omo-Agege’s sister.
“This is the same woman her brother, Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege wants to use to replace Ms. Onochie despite demands by the public for people who will deliver free and fair elections,” one of the sources said.
Sahara Reporters was not done until it said, recently, some party leaders accused Lecky of manipulating electoral processes in the Delta State APC to favour the Prophet Jones Erue/Senator Omo-Agege’s faction, against the Chief Cyril Ogodo-led APC executive in the state.
Nigerians react
Nigerians, who are profoundly sad and angered by what appears to be show of unscrupulous elements within the polity getting stronger and more powerful than the party to the extent that they can at will checkmate the powers and decisions of the party leader, who is President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari.
Gingered by the Sahara Reporters’ report, the concerned citizens are beginning to speak out even with more revelations about the Senate President.
We gathered from a forum’s discussion which revealed lavish lifestyle that Ovie Omo-Agege’s younger brother, Jimmy, lives by virtue of influence of his elder brother as Deputy Debate President.
With a post of photograph where he shows off with affluence with his latest of Rose Roy car, the source added a note to say:
“This is his younger brother, Jimmy Omo-Agege. He turned 50 few days ago. It’s with him he does all the contracts including the Constituency projects. That is a latest Rolls-Royce Phantom. Check out the customised plate number.”
Another discussant, also as sad and angered as others, said: “I’m just exasperated with all the intrigues in our polity. By and large, it’s about personal gain. What is more painful is the fact people who should know better are blindfolded by all the lies the press has been peddling.
“Nigerians have the following characteristics, we forget too soon, we forgive and pardon too quickly, and we are impatient. Nigeria’s press, largely controlled by the Southern elites, have constantly fed the gullible populace with wrong narratives, and this is the result we are seeing.
“People who should ordinarily be behind bars, are standing on rooftops to shout all manner of invectives, just so they can remain in power!” She exclaimed.
We also gathered from another posted complainant who simply said: “Now we fully understand why he (Omo-Agege) didn’t want Madam @Lauretta Onochie … it is now clearer.”
“The sisters boyfriend or is it man friend that they live together Mustapha Lecky is the one Madam Lauretta was supposed to replace at INEC. He was the one that made Ovie win elections and even reelection. So he knows what he is doing,” yet another source said.
A Southern critic, Jack Obinyan, reacting to the news that Senate had rejected Lauretta Onochie, said in a report that said of him: “the Senate know she would have dealed with irregularities in our elections. They intentionally dropped her. Jack Obinyan thinks that Lauretta is capable to work it in INEC and succeed .”
