CALIFORNIA TALES: DSP OVIE OMO-AGEGE IS ON NO LEAVE NO TRANSFER

As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Fejiro Oliver

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth them all”. Those wordings from the bible has played out time and time again in the life of Nigeria’s Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, right from when he decided to step his feet as a contestant into the political terrain.

In his political baptism of fire, he has been beaten severally but never gave up, wounded like a soldier of Christ but soldiered on. He has always had his eyes to the goal, which is to place the Urhobo ethnic nationality on the map of the national stage. In all these, he knew he can never do it alone without the help of others and when the time was ripe, he sought alliance with his friends from the North, West and East to make it possible. They aligned with his interest and helped him secure the position of the Deputy Senate President, which today some evil elements are fighting. But who fights God’s anointed and win?

For weeks, enemies of our country especially those who feel they must control the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) have started a proxy war, engaging charlatans who parade themselves as factional executives of the irrelevant National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) that hopes to draw funding from the NDDC. While they make unsubstantiated allegations against the office of the DSP, His Excellency has chosen to keep mute, knowing that it is part of the dirty politics we play in Nigeria.

While the sponsors and their urchins run amok just to desecrate the Deputy Senate President, they forgot to put into consideration that power does not come from the East, West, South or North, but from God. While they plot on how to bring together new board members of the NDDC, fearing that only Ovie Omo-Agege can stop, they forget that tomorrow is nor certain for any man. Therefore, why do they the heathens rage and worry?

As the highest political ranking member from the South South, Mr President and the powers that be knows the rudiment of power and absolute loyalty that Omo-Agege has displayed courageously for President Muammadu Buhari, such that no one from the South South has ever showed and this is without pretense. Mr President knows that the only one capable of defending his interest and that of the entire country in the South South among his party members is Ovie Omo-Agege and therefore will not allow anyone apart from the party National Chairman to have upper hand in the selection of credible men to run the affairs of the NDDC. If this is what the sponsors are fighting, it’s a lost battle.

The issue of his alleged conviction in 1997 is not new. When he ran in 2014, it was brought but like gold through a furnace, Omo-Agege walked past it unscratched and came out stronger. Then, he brought out a proof that the allegations were null and void which silenced the mouth of the opposing voices. Six years after, they have brought out same old stories and they expect His Excellency to call a press briefing to state his innocence when he has done it in the past? Never!

He does not have the funds to waste by calling media houses explaining to bunch of nitwits who have become jobless and now willing tools in the hands of desperate politicians from the South South, who instead of rejoicing that one of their own now sits among the mighty men of valor in the land, have chosen to fight him in an already lost battle. Again, who fights God’s anointed and wins?

The case in question is as useless as the letter P in psychology. A young Attorney of 34 years is alleged to have committed perjury by saying that he has not registered for a driver license and his accusers claimed otherwise. All the court merely did was to fine him. On the issue of alleged check forgery, he was placed on temporary suspension pending the determination of the case and when it was concluded in the State Bar of California, he was NEVER convicted to warrant him not participating in election across the world. As a matter of fact, the court stated that the offence so committed is a MISDEAMENOUR.

For those who wish to argue further, let’s concede for a minute that he was sentenced to hundred years in prison with hard labor in 1998 and was pardoned after five years of serving his sentence, thus he left in 2003. The Nigeria law is explicit that a person who is convicted will not be liable to hold public office until ten years after. If Omo-Agege concedes to his accuser that he left prison in 2003, it therefore means that he can start holding public office from 2013 and he was first elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2019, ten years after the imaginary sentence.

Truly, common sense is not common. The Deputy Senate President has nothing to prove to his accusers rather they have everything to prove to him and Nigerians. He is a regular visitor to the US and still a practicing member of the law profession in California with his driving license still very active. Indeed, his family has stayed there for over a decade and he cruised on the roads of California during the Christmas period before going to Canada for national duties. Can they come up with another accusation instead of this one that has lost sound and rhythm to the ears?

Can they tell us how in 1993, Omo-Agege raped his lecturer in the front of US police and while they tried to stop him, he gave them his middle finger? Can they bring up the tales of 1990 on how Omo-Agege while inside the plane moved to the cockpit and directed the pilot to head to Yemen or he blows up the plane to kill the 170 passengers onboard? If they have forgotten that one, can I remind them that in 2003 while in front of the White House, he was arrested for forging the signature of the US President to the Bank of America where over $200 million was moved to his account in Panama?

No, since we all want to be stupid as a people, let’s be stupid by bringing up issues that have no truth but laced with 100% lies, have no substance but pursued for political blackmail. Since we have decided to run amok with falsehood and parade them as truth, let us start conjuring things that never happened and claim them as facts. After all, Nigerians are gullible and will accept anything against a politician, so long we do not like the face of such person.

The Omo-Agege I know has developed tough skin for nuisance and will never use the security apparatus to get his accusers to prove their allegations. To him, only a ripe fruit has stones thrown at it. To him, the burden of proof should lie on his accusers not him. To him, not every barking of a dog should get a response and it is this silence that he has maintained that is driving the sponsors of this accusation mad.

Perhaps, what DSP Omo-Agege has refused to tell them is that the allegations so peddled was quashed by the superior Court of California upon a thorough review by Judges Lance a. Ito and G. Magnera, when it held as follows;

“120 Pursuant to Section 17 Penal Code, offense is deemed to be a misdeanor (i.e, not a felony as ignorantly and foolishly claimed by the accusers of the brethren).

122 Plea of guilty or conviction is set aside: A Plea of Not guilty is entered: Case is dismissed…”

And that judgment from the court ends the whole drama.

Can they come up with new ones please? But when next they decide to take up another politician who is not forgiving and has a large heart like Ovie Omo-Agege, they should have it at the back of their minds that just every politician when pushed can play dirty and when the tide turns, can they come out unscratched like the DSP.

Whoever sees DSP as a threat to his survival on NDDC should be weepinh more knowing that the position he occupies will stay till 2023, without leave or transfer. If it hurts, suicide is an option and the demons of hell will gladly accept their soul(s). For now, Omo-Agege is committed towards helping President Buhari finish strong and leave a better Nigeria than he met it as well as helping his boss, the Senate President, to pilot the affairs of the Senate in the right direction.

These little things matter…

Fejiro Oliver, an investigative journalist can be reached on +2348022050733 (SMS ONLY). He tweets with @fejirooliver86 and IG Handle @kingofqueendom