By Ufuoma Egbe
There are moments in politics when a man tells you exactly who he is. Senator Ovie Omo-Agege told Delta at Ughelli who he is.
“I want to make the news again. I want to make the news. You understand me now? I want to make news. Anybody who rigs the election that day, we will kill him! Rig and die! Rig and die! Rig and die!”
If you listened carefully, you heard two things: a threat, and a confession.
The threat is obvious — a promise of murder on election day. The confession is deeper: a total lack of faith in law, in process, in democracy, and a return to his most infamous political method — self-help anarchy.
Nigeria has seen Omo-Agege’s self-help before. We all watched on live television how thugs walked into the hallowed chamber of the Nigerian Senate, seized the Mace — the authority of the legislature — and walked away.
The invasion was linked to him. That day, he did not go to court. He did not file a motion. He used force to take what he believed he was entitled to.
Today, the ghost of that snatched mace is back in Uvwie, only louder, bloodier, and more desperate.
“If you don’t value your life. You don’t value your life, come and rig elections! Because when they rig elections, they are rigging your future! They are rigging the future of your children. You understand me now? We’re waiting for them. Let them try it. It is rig and die!”
He adds for emphasis: “We’re prepared for them. We’re going to give them aura for aura. We will just be looking. In the past, they would tell you, go to court, go to court. This time we will not go to court. There will be no court this time. We’re going to fight and be on ground here. Are you hearing me?”
That is the full doctrine of anarchy. No police. No INEC. No court. No rule of law. Only us, on ground, fighting and killing.
It is important to place this in context. Weeks before this war cry, Omo-Agege had been crying persecution, accusing the ruling APC of targeting him and other NDC chieftains in Delta. Nobody listened.
The complaints failed to gain traction because Deltans know the truth: he and his NDC followers left the APC not on ideological grounds, but because they could not secure tickets. They lacked the numbers. They lacked the popularity.
When you cannot win a ticket, you allege persecution. When persecution claims fail, you resort to threats. This is the trajectory of Omo-Agege’s 2027 senatorial campaign. It is not about Delta. It is about self.
We must ask: who is this threat directed at? Who will his followers kill on election day under the guise of stopping rigging? Is it the INEC presiding officer who is slow to upload results? Is it the rival party agent who challenges his? Is it the policeman who tries to maintain order? The phrase “rig and die” is a blank cheque for jungle justice at polling units.
And this is coming from a man who was Deputy President of the Senate, a lawyer, a man who made laws for Nigeria. If a lawmaker says “there will be no court this time,” what is he telling the young men listening to him? He is telling them the constitution is suspended. He is telling them to become executioners.
Delta cannot afford this. This state has worked hard for its relative political stability. Elections here are competitive, sometimes tense, but we have managed to avoid the scale of bloodshed seen elsewhere. To now have a major opposition figure openly campaigning on a platform of murder is to invite chaos.
The security agencies must not treat this Ughelli declaration as mere political braggadocio. The history of electoral violence in Nigeria shows that it always starts with such reckless utterances left unchecked.
Today it is “rig and die” in Uvwie. Tomorrow it could be a clash in Warri, in Ughelli, in Sapele, with lives lost, and the same man will claim he was quoted out of context.
He was not. The video is clear. The shouting is clear. “We’re going to fight and be on ground here.”
What ground? The polling ground that belongs to all Deltans? The ground that INEC and security agencies are mandated to protect? He intends to turn polling units into battlefields.
Let us also interrogate the logic. Omo-Agege says, “When they rig elections, they are rigging your future! They are rigging the future of your children.” That is true. Rigging does rob futures. That is vcdaadccá why we have courts. That is why we have the Electoral Act with severe penalties for rigging. That is why we have INEC’s BVAS and IREV. The remedy for rigging is evidence and prosecution, not extrajudicial killing.
To propose killing as a remedy for rigging is to commit a crime worse than rigging itself.
The ghost of the Senate mace should have taught Omo-Agege a lesson: that force may give you a momentary headline, but it leaves a permanent stain. He made the news then as an alleged mace-snatcher. He now wants to make the news again, by his own admission, as the apostle of “rig and die.”
Deltans must reject this. The APC, the ADC, the PDP, the Labour Party, and even members of his own NDC who still believe in democracy must condemn it. Civil society must speak up. Traditional rulers and religious leaders must call him to order.
2027 must be decided by ballots, not bullets. By persuasion, not intimidation. By counting votes, not counting bodies.
Omo-Agege’s self-help anarchy belongs to the past. Delta has moved beyond it.
– Ufuoma Egbe, A Public Affairs Analyst, Writes From Eku, Delta State.
