Gov Oborevwori’s Early Endorsement of Dafinone Against Omo-Agege’s Senate Bid Spark Crisis in Delta APC

Fresh crisis seem to be brewing in the Delta State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) over Governor Sheriff Oborevwori early endorsement of Senator Ede Dafinone for Delta Central Senatorial seat.

Tongues are already wagging that the purported open endorsement may tear the party apart ahead 2027 general elections with party faithful rooting for former Vice Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege who is also seeking the position, spurring for political war.

Governor Oborevwori has come under serious criticism over the development which some party faithful believe is too premature and amount to breach of established political processes for the state government to side one aspirant against the other in the race.

Omo-Agege and the founding leader of the party, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor were the main contenders in the race against the candidacy of Senator Dafinone who is pushing for a second term in office.

Emerhor suddenly withdrawn his senatorial ambition after the governor purportedly directed the Ughelli North Chairman, Hon. Jaro Egbo to organise Dafinone’s Delta Central re-election declaration.

Omo-Agege’s protégé, Hon. Godwin Anaughe alleged that Governor Oborevwori is backing Dafinone to hold the seat for him after his 2031 governorship to pursue his senatorial ambition.

“Oborevwori’s support for Dafinone comes with a rotten pact: Ede gets just one term, then he must step aside for Oborevwori’s own Senate bid in 2031”, he claimed.

Omo-Agege protégés and Governor Oborevwori aides are currently at longhead over the development.

However, Oborevwori’s aide and Director General, Delta State Bureau for Orientation and Communications, Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe, Esq., disagreed, saying this is not a development driven by sentiment, but by structure, performance, and political reality.

He said Omo-Agege should be aware that in this era of strategic alignment, stakeholders are quietly but decisively recalibrating their positions around a leadership that has demonstrated both electoral strength and administrative visibility.

Oghenesivbe taunted Omo-Agege for polling just four LGAs in 2023 governorsbip against Oborevwori’s 21 LGAs, “despite his considerable influence as Deputy Senate President and political experience”, describing the outcome of that election as not merely electoral but an instructive signaled that the broader base of the electorate had shifted.

He urged Omo-Agege to align with the governor and reinforce party cohesion and position himself within a structure that remains connected to federal power under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, adding that his alignment may land him a juicy federal appointment post-2027.

But Omo-Agege’s protégé warned that APC can’t expect to win Delta in 2027 by disrespecting the Eastern Urhobo and the warriors who built the APC from 2014 to 2025, long before Oborevwori defected to the APC.

Anaughe alleged that the governor is more focused on 2031 and the Okpe agenda than on what matters for President Tinubu and APC in 2027.

He claimed that the governor wants to split the party and hand over Delta to the opposition ostensibly because of his 2031 senatorial bid.

He noted that Governor Oborevwori was admitted to APC to “strengthen it, not to slaughter it”, saying, “Omo-Agege gave him peace on a platter by burying his own governorship ambition”.

The APC chieftain cautioned that Oborevwori’s trampling the purported olive branch by Omo-Agege to seize the governorship in 2027 and senate tickets for Okpe kingdom — and to reserve the Senate for himself in 2031 would be a political suicide.

Omo-Agege, according to him, could revitalized the opposition, and aimed for the governorship himself, watching Oborevwori’s political dreams fall apart but instead, he chose to step back for the good of the party and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu by opting for the Senate.