The handwriting was boldly displayed on the wall many months before Wednesday, April 23, 2025, when Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, his predecessor in office and vice presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general election, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, and their entire political structure dumped the PDP for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The defectors include Deputy Governor Monday Onyeme; House of Assembly Speaker Emomotimi Guwor; federal and state lawmakers; commissioners; local government chairmen and councilors; party officers at the state, local government and ward levels; and chieftains across the state.
The mass defection, described by the watching public as a “political tsunami,” not only ended weeks of speculations about Oborevwori’s intention to ditch the platform he rode on to office, but also marked a significant shift in Delta’s politics and far-reaching implications for PDP’s structure and influence in the South-South zone.
To the undiscerning, the process leading to the decampment appears to have started about February 4, 2025, when the APC governorship candidate in 2023 in Delta, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, opposed admitting Oborevwori and Okowa into the APC.
At an APC stakeholders’ meeting in Agbor, Ika South and Ute-Okpu in Ika North East Local Government Areas of Delta on February 4, Omo-Agege noted that, while the party was open to welcoming Senator Ned Nwoko (PDP, Delta North), House of Representatives and House of Assembly members and other PDP leaders, it’d “no interest in Oborevwori and Okowa joining its ranks.” The Nation first reported on the issue on February 4.
Omo-Agege’s rejection of Oborevwori and Okowa stemmed from “Oborevwori’s government’s alleged attempts to downplay APC’s strength despite the party’s growing influence in Delta,” hence he told the APC stakeholders that, “We have built this party from scratch, and we will not allow people with questionable records to destroy what we have worked hard for.”
Omo-Agege recalled: “After the 2023 elections, the PDP spread false propaganda, claiming that APC no longer exists in Delta. Yet, this is a state where APC won two senatorial seats and two House of Reps seats. Today, the only PDP senator (Nwoko) is set to join APC, and you are still saying we are not on the ground? Are we not the majority party?
“In Delta Central where Governor Oborevwori and I come from, APC won the senatorial seat. Out of three House of Reps’ seats, APC won two, while the remaining one was won by the Labour Party (LP). PDP won none. Out of nine House of Assembly seats, APC secured five, while PDP got four. So, which party is truly more popular?”
Omo-Agege added: “Soon, we will have three senators, and I am aware that the three PDP House of Reps members are joining APC. Some House of Assembly members will also join us. So, they are all coming. We welcome everyone of them. The only two people, who are not welcomed, are Governor Sheriff and Okowa. They should remain in PDP and build their party.”
Despite his (and later Nwoko’s) spirited efforts, Omo-Agege failed to stop Oborevwori and Okowa’s defection to the APC – which process was reportedly partly facilitated by the pioneer “political godfather” in Delta politics since democracy returned in Nigeria in 1999, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, who’s created a political dynasty that’s produced Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan (2007-2015), Governor Okowa (2015-2023), and Governor Oborevwori (2023-till date) – all on the PDP platform.
Although Ibori and Okowa had issues over the governorship succession for 2023, with Okowa’s candidate, Oborevwori, a former Speaker of Delta State House of Assembly, prevailing over Ibori’s choice, Mr David Edevbie, a commissioner of finance in Ibori’s administration (1999-2007); the differences didn’t disrupt the political calculations on ground, which’s that Ibori, a reported close ally and confidant of President Bola Tinubu, should bring Oborevwori and Okowa into the APC fold for the 2027 election.
That move is to expand the APC political base in the South-South beyond Cross River and Edo states to Delta, Akwa Ibom and possibly Rivers – which’s almost “in the bag” courtesy of former Rivers State Governor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Chief Nyesom Wike – and thus the expansion of the playing field for the re-election of Tinubu in 2027.
Delta having led the way, further speculations indicate that four or five other governors and their structures will move into the APC ahead of 2027, as a coalition of opposition politicians, headed by former Vice President and presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, is working to upstage Tinubu at the poll.
Indeed, hours after the PDP structure in Delta defected to the APC, an elated and upbeat National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, restated his prediction that more governors would join the party. The former Kano State governor spoke as he received newly-decamped PDP members from Kano at his residence in Abuja on April 24.
Declaring that the 2027 election “is a done deal” for the APC, Ganduje told reporters: “In APC, we believe in our President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we believe in his economic reforms, we believe in his Renewed Hope Agenda and part of the political renewed hope agenda is trying to canvass for more followership into the party.
“We started by democratically electing governors, especially in Edo State (Governor Monday Okpebholo), who was in PDP (but decamped to APC and was elected Senator), we contested (the governorship) and we succeeded in winning the election; the state is now in APC.
“Now, there is another channel that has been opened through advocacy, through dialogue, through convincing some highly and even elected governors to come into the party. And you can see what has happened.
“The Governor of Delta State (Oborevwori), including his cabinet, even including the former vice presidential candidate (of the PDP, Okowa), including all the members of the state assembly and National Assembly, and the timber and caliber of PDP, are now in APC.
“So, you can see that we are expanding. I don’t want to reveal our secret but what I’m telling you is that for APC, 2027 is a done deal. More governors are coming into APC, I assure you; and places where we have elections, APC, insha’Allah, will win those elections.”
Pioneer chapter chairman of the PDP in Delta State, ex-Senator James Manager (PDP, Delta South), has described Oborevwori and Okowa’s defection to APC “as the outcome of extensive internal consultations within the party.”
“All PDP members in the state, including the governor, former Governor Okowa, the Speaker, the state party chairman, all the local government chairmen and others, have agreed to move to the APC. We cannot continue to be in a sinking boat,” a reference to the PDP that’s fractured prior to the 2023 general election.
After an enlarged PDP stakeholders’ meeting at the Government House in Asaba on April 23, Manager told journalists that the decision to decamp to the APC followed months of deliberations among key party figures, adding, “We’ve had intense discussions – some of them contentious – but we eventually reached a near-unanimous consensus driven by the prevailing mood in the party. What you are witnessing today is the culmination of those deliberations.”
Without revealing the behind-the-scenes scheming, Manager said: “You cannot remain in a boat that is clearly capsizing. As a liberal-minded person, I’ve tried to view the situation objectively, and the current realities have made it clear – it’s time to chart a new course.
“As you can see from the mammoth crowd around you, this is not a solo decision. It reflects a shared vision among us. It is a collective one, made for many reasons – reasons which I may not delve into at this moment.”
Also significant is Okowa’s viral video message, reportedly addressed to his supporters in his dialect, with the assurance that he would choose the best (political) path going into 2027. “Be assured that we will not go in the wrong direction. We will take the best direction, the best path for our people,” Okowa said in the video.
With the mass defection of PDP members in Delta to the APC, what does the future hold for Omo-Agege, who, though having a face-off with the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN), over control of Delta’s APC, had rightly placed himself as the front runner for Governor in 2027?
The scramble for the APC ticket may now be a straight fight between Oborevwori on the one hand, and Omo-Agege and Keyamo on the other hand. With a united front of former PDP memberers behind him, the APC ticket is as good as Oborevwori’s for his second term bid!
Can Omo-Agege and Keyamo bury the hatchet, and unite to produce a single aspirant from the “original” APC camp to challenge Oborevwori for the ticket? For now, that prospect is better imagined, even as Omo-Agege’s called for unity in the face of a possible hostile takeover of the Delta APC structure by the new entrants, with Oborevwori becoming automatic leader of the party in Delta State – reaping where he didn’t sow!
At the APC stakeholders’ meeting on February 4, Omo-Agege implored members “to be united, and stay strong.” Thanking them “for their dedication and hard work,” he reassured the members that “all internal issues within Delta APC will be resolved ahead of 2027,” stressing that PDP’s national crisis could render it irrelevant by the next election cycle – a prediction that’s ominously unfolding by the day.
“We should stop focusing on our internal issues and instead take advantage of PDP’s bigger problems. Are we even sure PDP will still exist in 2027? Their crisis at the national level is worsening. Our focus should be on winning the next elections and re-electing President Bola Tinubu,” Omo-Agege stated, adding that the successes of Tinubu’s policies “have made APC the most attractive party in Delta State, drawing interest from several political figures.”
It looks a long road – and a fait accompli – for Omo-Agege and the founding or original APC members, several of whose chieftains led the agitation for Oborevwori and Okowa to decamp to the APC, which the duo honoured in a grand style on Wednesday, April 23, 2025.