Festus Agas: Gov. Okowa’s Plan B for 2023 may be announced soon

There are indications that Festus Agas may be unveiled as candidate of Accord Party in Delts State, soon, ENigeria Newspaper reports.

Festus Agas, a career civil servant and politician in Delta state who has served in multiple capacities within the oil rich state appears to be the alternative plan of the incumbent governor, Ifeanyi Okowa to install a successor in the forthcoming 2023 election, sources averred.

Insiders who are familiar with the political calculations within the People’s Democratic Party in Delta State have revealed that Governor Okowa, who appears to be hand-tied by the ruling of an Appeal Court upturning the candidacy of favorite, Sheriff Obvorevwori, is not leaving anything to chance especially as the window for the submission of names of party candidates and their deputies closes in a few hours – per the directive of the Independent Electoral Commission – INEC.

The Appeal Court’s decision automatically designates David Edevbie, Chief James Onanefe Ibori’s candidate, as the PDP’s flagbearer in Delta State, a development that tends not to be in the incumbent governor Okowa’s favor.

Okowa’s emergence as the PDP’s vice-presidential candidate sparked in-fighting among certain party stakeholders, and he is rumored to be resolute in installing his preferred successor in his home state of Delta despite the agreement for power to return to the Delta Central and “Agas is his last joker” said source within the party.

If things go as planned, Festus Ovie Agas, who served as Governor Okowa’s chief of staff from 2015 to 2019 and chief strategist throughout the second tenure, could take the place of the Accord Party candidate in Delta State.

However, it remains to be seen how the intrigues ultimately pan out. In the meantime, the occasional conflicts within the PDP in Delta state improve Senator Ovie Omo-electoral Agege’s prospects at the polls come 2023.