The Delta State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council has lashed out at the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege, over his plans to “work with yahoo boys” if elected as governor in 2023.

The Delta PDP campaign council described the Deputy Senate President’s plans as “another harebrained and dubious agenda” aimed at deceiving the people of the state he means well for the youths.

It made this known via a statement issued on Saturday by the Deputy Director, Media, and Publicity Committee, Delta State PDP Campaign Council, Dr. Ifeanyi Osuoza.

Responding to a statement made by Omo-Agege during a campaign rally at Owa-Ekei in Ika North East Local Government Area of the State, the PDP campaign council said: “We were quite surprised to hear the Delta State APC Gubernatorial candidate stated unequivocally that he would work with persons identified with the illegal practice of ‘Advanced Fee Fraud or 419’, otherwise referred to as ‘Yahoo Boys’ if he is elected governor of Delta State.

“To put the matter in proper perspective, Advance Fee Fraud’ or ‘419’, derives directly from Section 419 of the Criminal Code Act in Nigeria, which deals with obtaining goods by false pretences. It states in part that: ‘Any person who by any false pretence, and with intent to defraud, obtains from any other person anything capable of being stolen, or induces any other person to deliver to any person anything capable of being stolen, is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for three years to seven years’.

“We are aware that majority of advanced fee fraud is internet based and is now categorized as Cybercrime, which is an activity that either targets or uses a computer, a computer network, or a networked device. Most purveyors are computer hackers who basically want to make money from the act, but such survivalist intentions do not however negate the illegal nature of the practice.

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“It is, therefore a great act of wonder to hear Omo-Agege, who curiously has no remarkable track record of empowering Delta Central youths, whom he represents in the Senate, in any capacity at all, or even equipping them with any kind of notable and beneficial skills (except maybe in the art of snatching national symbols or extortion of contractors) in his near 8 years in the Senate and in his hallowed position as Deputy Senate President, not to talk about setting up ‘tech hub’ to ‘harness the creative ingenuity of our youths’. No be juju be that?, according to Warri man.

“We find it truly amazing that the Delta APC Gubernatorial candidate can shamelessly rise to such reckless heights of unbridled deceit and dubious manipulation for political reasons and cheap electoral gains, by pretending that he means well for Delta Youths.

“In fact, Omo-Agege exposed his ignorance and betrayed his devious motives by creating the impression that only those involved in advanced fee fraud have superior computer intelligence whereas there are hundreds of Delta Youths who are tech savvy and performing legal and legitimate wonders with the computer and internet, especially in the areas of graphics generation and designs, Apps development to make life easier for all our social transactions and software configurations to enhance the ease of computer operations, just to mention a few.

“Of course, we are aware that the Delta APC is suffering from a crippling and debilitating paucity and scarcity of funds to prosecute their campaigns and the coming elections, so could it possibly be that Omo-Agege’s tongue-in-cheek promise, is possibly aimed to attract the attention of a particular group of Delta Youths for a completely different purpose, which may not be far from surreptitiously soliciting for a financial lifeline to help their flagging and wimpy campaign?

“In fact, it now appears like a very convenient coincidence that Omo-Agege chose the campaign rally in Ika North East, to pledge his commitment to work with ‘Yahoo boys’ through his so-called ‘tech hub’, as it has recently come to our attention, that a certain Promise Ogumu (aka James Simpson, Brain Walker), reportedly handpicked by Omo-Agege as an aspirant for the APC Ika North East State Assembly Primary was, on September 20th this year, arraigned by EFCC before the Justice FA Olubanjo Federal High Court sitting in Asaba for Fraud.

“Although Mr. Ogumu, alias ‘Brain Walker’ and ‘James’ Simpson lost the primary election, perhaps on the realization by his political sponsors, whom he even took a photo with, which was displayed all over social media to underline his important status with Ovie Omo-Agege and his Deputy, this episode just goes to confirm the magnitude of the fraudulent intention behind that vague and bogus promise to work with ‘Yahoo boys’.

“We want to put it on record that the dubious and deceitful agenda for youth development, entrepreneurship, and revenue generation of the APC, is quite far from the pragmatic and dynamic administration of His Excellency, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, CON and Vice-Presidential candidate of the PDP, which has laid down the functional, tried and tested structures and modalities for youth development and entrepreneurship, through the YAGEP and STEP youths empowerment schemes, amongst others.

“It is on record that these programmes and schemes have so far trained and graduated over 2,000 Delta youths with adequate and appropriate starter packs provided for them to pursue a self-reliant and sustaining entrepreneurial engagement in the area of their specializations.

“And to consolidate its determination and commitment towards youth empowerment and capacity building, the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s administration, in November, pledged to scale up the number of Artisans in its empowerment programme from 2,500 to 5,000 from the 2023 fiscal year.

“Of course, there’s no gainsaying the fact that these Artisans, whose input to the growth and expansion of the national economy is very crucial, include those young brainiacs and whizkids doing great work in the silicon community particularly in the repairs of GSM mobile phones, computers and configuration of accessories to ensure that Nigerians are constantly mobile, secured and up to date digitally, in our everyday interactions and transactions,” it stated.

The campaign council recalled that the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, pledged to set aside $10 billion for youth empowerment schemes to tackle youth unemployment in the country, adding that the former Vice President would crash the unemployment rate and generate huge revenue for the country if elected as president in 2023.

“These, as far as we are concerned, are solid covenants and pledges of practical, aggressive action to energize and operationalize the efforts towards expanding and accelerating the creation of gainful employment, especially for our youths, including those in the computer and internet-compliant community,” it noted.

The council added that the PDP, “with its solid, well articulated and implemented empowerment programmes, is and still remains the best option for all Delta youths and the prospect of our youths benefitting more, especially with the $10 billion youth and women development fund to be set aside and robust pledges and promises to the vibrant creative sector in which the youths are the majority in population, remains very bright, once Atiku/Okowa win the Presidency in 2023.”

The Star