I was in Lagos to see Chief Peter Okocha the guber candidate of Action Congress in the 2007 election. Date was 2008/9. Chief Okocha was in court challenging his exclusion from the 2007 guber election having been validly nominated by his party for the election. If he succeeds in the court the election that produced Dr Uduaghan first tenure would be annulled thus paving way for Okocha to contest.
Okocha had lost at the lower court and was on appeal at the Appeal Court. I had heard of a fifth columnist among the Okocha political clan, a possible dark horse and I needed to inform Chief Okocha.
Chief Okocha did not believe my story; he couldn’t figure out how someone who did not participate in the election could become a participant in a repeat election if the first election was annulled. But I was sure of my facts although I had not known the dark horse. I needed to convince Okocha at all cost. So I put a call to Augustine Ovie Omo Agege a confidant of Chief Okocha. I briefly told him my mission to Lagos and why I needed his help. He told me to come straight to him at his Effurun residence.
Ovie was not a member of the Okocha political clan from the onset. He came in at the Appeal Court stage; in fact, Chief Okocha mentioned his name to us at a dinner we had with him at his Ibusa home. Okocha told us how Ovie had been of tremendous assistance, unsolicited for that matter, to him on the court case. Okocha told us that Ovie had an uncanny intuition on court matters and had a way of figuring out issues ahead of time and solving them with his own personal resources without recourse to him Okocha. We were ecstatic, especially those of us from Delta Central; the Urhobos in the group. We were few from Delta Central in the group and we needed to get someone in the senatorial district with the impressive political status such as of Ovie to give us traction in the area. We of Urhobo stock therefore sought the permission of Okocha to meet and interact with Ovie on issues involving the Okocha Project. He readily granted it and he put a call to Ovie right there and then introducing us to Ovie as his confidants.
We met Ovie several times and he introduced us to his aides; Mr JE the special assistant and Mr ON a personal assistant. These individuals are now in PDP holding top government and party positions.
In the course of the interaction Ovie requested I meet one Comrade Taju the state chairman of an obscure political party. Comrade Taju was later appointed special adviser on inter party affairs in Uduaghan government. The purpose of the meeting was to strengthen our ties with the Taju party at least that was what I thought. I met Taju one morning at Hotel Excel Refinery Road. Taju told me that a new Urhobo candidate would emerge and he would contest in the new election after the annulment and he would win. I didn’t understand him. I asked if he meant Ogboru because Ogboru contested in the first election. He said not Ogboru but an entirely different man and I should be on the lookout. Frankly speaking I didn’t know what to make of Taju and his hypothesis, nevertheless I reported back to my colleagues in Okocha camp. They were equally puzzled.
Curiously Taju party started setting up offices across the state and recruiting officers. One day I got a call from an angry lady whom I didn’t know. She asked me to caution my party state woman leader to mind her party business and stay off Taju party business. I called my state woman leader and advised her accordingly. It turned out that the lady caller was contesting the woman leadership of Taju party against another lady being sponsored by my party woman leader. Mr ON the personal assistant to Ovie was the organizer. I called ON and asked him what he was up to. He said he was just helping out. He was later to call me pleading I should not inform his boss Ovie.
The tempo at the court intensified with Ovie almost taking over the case from Chief Okocha. Strangely Ovie showed no interest whatsoever neither in our party affairs or in the activities of our flagship pressure group Restoration Delta. None whatsoever. Even when we requested the involvement of his aides he declined out rightly. He was only interested in the court case and in listening intently to our plans and strategies. He would ask questions for clarifications but no other comments whatsoever.
Meanwhile the Action Congress member in the House of Assembly Hon HI was on the Okocha Project.
The rumour of the dark horse and fifth columnist refused to die. We could smell it strongly around us making us very edgy and suspicious of one another. Try as much as we could, we could not shake it off. It hung there like an ominous cloud. I was particularly affected given my earlier meeting with Comrade Taju and the frenetic pace with which his party was opening offices across Delta State and in no other state. I must dig further.
I sought audience with Chief AU the Man- Friday of Ovie. Chief AU is an Ughelli chief and a prince of Ughelli Kingdom. He was on phone when I was ushered into his living room. He waved me into a seat as he continued his phone discussions. Chief AU is a very loud person with a booming voice and I could hear him very clearly. His phone was a loud one too and I could hear the speaker on the other end. It would appear chief AU forgot I was in the room with him. The man at the other end was Mr JE the SA to Ovie. The chief wanted to know if JE had gone to see the national chairman of Comrade Taju party. JE had been there but met the chairman absent. He was yet to go back again. Chief AU was angry. At that point the chief suddenly realized I was in the room and abruptly ended the call. When JE called back chief did not pick the call again.
My talk with Chief AU was brief. He had a serious engagement elsewhere and he apologized for not being able to attend to me. I called Chief Anene Chigbue the head of our group and both of us agreed I needed to go to Lagos to see Chief Peter Okocha.
Chief Okocha out rightly dismissed my story. He was looking at it from the legal point of view. I understood his point of view but not convinced. I knew I had to do more. It was at that point I called Ovie to help me out. I met Ovie the evening of the following day at his Effurun mansion. He listened with his usual rapture asking me questions as to sources of my information and on and on. He was cool and calculated in his examination of me. When he was done he told me there was nothing as such and he ended the meeting.
Surprisingly all my sources dried up from that date as his aides kept away from me.
On the eve of the judgement I met Rt Honourable Pius Ewherido at his Uvwie residence on another matter. On my way home my phone rang. It was Ovie. He was returning my call. Because his number was on fast dial on my phone I must have mistakenly dialed his number. He asked after my health. I could hear the voice of Hon HI clearly in the background. Hon HI had told me earlier on that he would travel to Abuja to be with Ovie during the judgement.
We lost the case and we were devastated. A few days later I met Hon HI. He had returned from Abuja. We shared our grieves and pains, our losses and he said “we were lucky I was with Ovie on the evening of the judgement, he was devastated and very depressed. He was un-consolable” I asked why.
Hon HI looked at me intently for that question. He said “don’t you know that Ovie was going to contest the re -run election if the court had annulled the first one? You mean you don’t know.”
I was dumbfounded, stunned. It all came tumbling down the answers to many whys. So all the time we were searching for the dark horse, the fifth columnist, he was with us helping in the search!!!! No wonder the elders say when the thief is helping you to search for the stolen good you never will find the good.
I felt a lump in my throat, the pain in my chest. The pains of betrayal are real, like the pains of the woman in labour.
Till date I don’t know how I left Hon HI presence; worse still I didn’t know how I got home. But I called Anene that I have found the dark horse the fifth columnist when it served no further purpose…. That was then but now it helps to define the true character of Augustine Ovie Omo-Agege as a man never to be trusted.
Chief Olori Magege writes from Agbarho, Delta State.
