Former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege has addressed claims that he instructed Senator Ede Dafinone to vote against Senator Godswill Akpabio during the 2023 election of the President of the 10th Senate.
He explained that there was no truth to the claim, adding that a it was a “cheap and mischievous fabrication” that has been allowed to fester for too long.
Omo-Agege stated that he kept Dafione at a distance for almost three years because of what he described as “a lazy, desperate lie”.
Naija News reports that the lawmaker disclosed this in a statement signed by his Special Adviser, Strategy and Communications, Godwin Anaughe.
The statement read, “Enough is enough. For a long time, supporters of Senator Ede Dafinone have been going about with a cheap and mischievous fabrication: that the Deputy President of the 9th Senate, His Excellency, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, instructed or commanded Dafinone to vote against His Excellency, Senator Godswill Akpabio in the 2023 election of Principal Officers of the 10th Senate, and that this is why the Senate President kept him at a distance for almost three years. It is a lazy, desperate lie.”
According to the statement, Omo-Agege had initially ignored the allegation because it sounded “utterly unwise and misguided.”
“We let it slide at first because it sounded utterly unwise and misguided and came like the grumbling of a pitiably servile man who knew not his right from his left upon arrival in Abuja and facing a litmus test of the power dynamics of the 3-Arm Zone for the very first time,” it said.
But Anaughe said the matter changed when one Ejiro Etaghene took the claim to Crown FM and Kpoko FM radio stations to attack Omo-Agege.
“For the record, the Distinguished Senator Ovie Omo-Agege never ever commanded Dafinone, or anyone else, to vote against Akpabio. On the contrary, he unequivocally and openly backed Akpabio in line with the leadership of his party then, and he has nothing to apologise for. This is who Omo-Agege is: an absolute respecter of collective leadership decisions and choices of any system he belongs to,” Anaughe said.
The statement accused Dafinone of playing both sides.
“The man playing both sides was Dafinone. He freely confided in Senator Omo-Agege that he would vote for His Excellency, Senator Godswill Akpabio, but secretly slipped off to Distinguished Senator Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari’s meetings, all for himself.
“If he was out in the cold with the Senate President, he should look himself in the mirror and ask whether being a Janus character is a virtue befitting the legacy he inherited in the Senate. His disloyalty did that. His double-dealing did that. Omo-Agege has no hand in it.
“The truth is, despite committing to supporting the party’s endorsement of Senator Akpabio, a foxy Dafinone kept showing up at secret anti-party nocturnal meetings to undermine the party’s position. It was such that the Vice President, His Excellency, Senator Kashim Shettima had to personally intervene by tasking Omo-Agege to advise both senators to support the party’s position,” the statement read.
The statement repeatedly drew a line between Omo-Agege and Dafinone’s alleged actions.
“So, it must be extremely disgusting to the average reasonable person that instead of fully owning his choice to betray his avowed commitment to his party’s position, Dafinone continues to disingenuously hide from the consequences of his vote by hiding behind Omo-Agege’s good name in unholy engagements or through utterly wayward proxies,” the statement added.
“You cannot betray the Commander-in-Chief and leader of your own party, betray your party and betray your own word, then turn around and blame a totally innocent man who trusted you with every fiber of honour to live above board having just got you elected to the Senate. That is ungodly, and the way to get out of it is genuine repentance, not to sink deeper into more sins by smearing the innocent man who moved mountains to get you elected to the Senate. There should be a limit to dishonour.”
The statement ended with a direct challenge to Senator Dafinone to speak for himself.
“And we now throw down the gauntlet: If any of this is a lie, let Dafinone come out himself and say so. Let him look the Urhobo people, Deltans and Nigerians in the eye and say, on record, that he voted for Yari because Omo-Agege told him to do so. Let him say it with his own mouth. He will not. He cannot. He knows it is not true,” Anaughe concluded.
