Former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, has claimed that Delta State governor Sheriff Oborevwori, defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) because he viewed him as a major political threat ahead of the 2027 governorship election.
Omo-Agege made the assertion during an interview on Arise News on Wednesday, while reacting to earlier remarks by the governor that he was not a political threat and could not be trusted.
Responding directly to Oborevwori’s comments, the former APC governorship candidate insisted that electoral figures from the 2023 general elections demonstrated his stronger political base in Delta Central Senatorial District.
“Starting with his remarks that I constitute no threat. Let me start by telling you, in the 2023 general elections, the APC that I led won two senate seats in Delta State out of the three,” Omo-Agege said.
He further argued that the results in Delta Central, where both men hail from, showed he outperformed the governor.
“In Delta Central, where both he and I come from, I got 115,245 votes against his 100,089 votes,” he said.
“This is the vote that separates the governor and myself. We are both Urhobo people. We are both from Delta Central Senatorial District.
“The people who know Sheriff Oborevwori and myself best made a judgement, and over 15,000 of them gave me more votes than the governor,” he added.
Omo-Agege also claimed that the APC secured legislative dominance in parts of the state during the 2023 elections.
According to him, “The party won the Delta Central Senate seat and two out of the three House of Representatives seats in the district, while also securing five of the nine State House of Assembly seats.”
The former senator alleged that dissatisfaction within the PDP after the 2023 elections triggered defections to the APC, which he linked to growing support for his 2027 governorship ambition.
“Most people in the then PDP were not happy with the governor, and they started moving into the APC to support me in the 2027 general elections,” he said.
He further escalated his claim, alleging that Oborevwori’s defection into the APC was driven by fear of his rising political influence.
“And when Sheriff saw what was happening, he panicked and ran into the APC to join me,” Omo-Agege said.
“If Sheriff believed that I was not a threat to him, why didn’t he stay back in PDP and take on me in 2027? I think the jury’s out on that.”
Addressing claims that Oborevwori inherited APC’s political structure and sidelined him after joining the party, Omo-Agege insisted his grassroots base remained intact.
“In the 2023 general elections, I had the support of 240,000 Deltans who came out, believed in me, fought for me and voted for me. That organic support of those 240,000 voters remains to this day,” he said.
He also accused the governor and his allies of disregarding an alleged party arrangement on structure-sharing following defections into the APC.
“While that 60-40 was implemented across the board in almost every state, in Delta State, Sheriff Oborevwori and his crew decided that they were not going to do that.
“So yes, they came in and basically wiped out everyone. These are people who fought to give the President the vote that he had in 2023,” he alleged.
Despite the alleged loss of party structure control, Omo-Agege maintained that his supporters remained loyal.
“The people remained with me. The people never left. That organic support remained,” he said.
He further claimed he won the APC governorship primary in Delta State, alleging irregularities in the process.
“We went to the field and we won massively in every ward. The only ward we lost in that primaries was the governor’s own ward.
“But out of the 85 wards, we won 84 wards in the course of the primaries and I came up with a total of about 109,000 votes,” he said.
Omo-Agege alleged that the election panel failed to properly document the results in his favour.
“To the extent that we had a sitting governor who was given this panel, which panel he refused to make available to conduct a free and fair primaries. So my votes were not recorded. We actually won the primaries,” he claimed.
