● “He panicked when mass defection started” — Ex-Deputy Senate President claims 2023 Delta gov win
Senator Ovie Omo-Agege says Delta Governor Sheriff Oborevwori abandoned the PDP for APC to avoid a direct 2027 governorship contest with him, insisting he won the 2023 race but was denied by the Supreme Court.
Responding Wednesday on Arise News to Oborevwori’s claim that “Omo-Agege is no threat in Delta politics,” the Deputy President of the 9th Senate said he built APC into a formidable force that won 2 of 3 Senate seats in Delta during the 2023 elections.
–“I beat him by 15,000 votes in Delta Central”–
“In the 2023 elections that I led, the APC won two Senate seats in Delta State out of three. From those two, Delta Central Senatorial District where Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori and I are from, my party, led by me, won in a head-to-head contest,” Omo-Agege said.
“I defeated the governor by a margin of 15,000 votes in the only Senate seat contested in Delta Central. I won it for my party by defeating the governor’s candidate with my candidate, Dafinone.”
He put the numbers at 115,245 votes for him vs 100,089 for Oborevwori in Delta Central.
“I did not concede defeat to Oborevwori because I won the 2023 governorship election. If Oborevwori was sure I was no threat, he would have stayed in the PDP to face me,” he stated.
–“Mass defection forced his hand”–
Omo-Agege said his post-2023 “thank-you tour” triggered mass PDP defections to APC because “people had no faith in Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori.”
“These are people who believed that I was cheated in the governorship elections, that I actually won. The governor himself knows that I won,” he claimed.
“Sheriff saw what was happening. He panicked, chickened out and ran into the APC to join me. Of course, you know the policy of the APC, that governors are always given the right of first refusal.”
–APC swept Delta Central under his watch–
The Obarisi of Urhoboland listed APC’s 2023 performance in Delta Central: 2 of 3 House of Reps seats, 5 of 9 State Assembly seats, and the Senate seat won by Ede Dafinone. Oborevwori’s PDP won zero Reps seats in the district and lost his own federal constituency to Labour Party.
“In Delta South, I won the Senate seat for Senator Joel Onowakpo. I would have taken Delta North if Okowa and others had not conspired to put my candidate, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, in prison,” he said.
–On Dafinone senatorial primary*
On claims he didn’t consult before running against Senator Ede Dafinone, Omo-Agege said he consulted widely and won 84 of 85 wards in the APC primary with 109,000 votes vs Dafinone’s 7,000+.
“The panel members were unknown to us. He refused access to them and the process was manipulated,” he alleged, blaming the sitting governor for controlling the primary panel.
–“240,000 organic voters still with me”–
A combi“I had the support of 240,000 Deltans who voted for me in 2023. That organic support remains till this day,” Omo-Agege said, accusing Oborevwori’s camp of violating the APC’s 60-40 power-sharing formula during congresses.
