Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori was absent when the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) met in Abuja on Saturday night.
The meeting was to welcome new entrants into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), but Oborevwori, who recently teamed up with the party, did not attend.
Oborevwori, who swept to victory in 2023 under the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), however, dumped the party earlier in the week, citing several factors.
The governor, his predecessor, Ifeanyi Okowa, and the entire PDP in the South-South state said they are collapsing their structure into the leading APC, which they argue serves as a better platform for the oil-rich state.
Other persons who attended the meeting include Senator Ned Nwoko, who represents Delta North; the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo; a former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege; APC scribe, Felix Morka; a former governorship candidate in Delta State, Great Ogboru, and other members of the National Assembly.
Saturday’s meeting was held at the Imo Governors’ Lodge in the nation’s capital.
The recent wave of defections from the PDP to the APC has stirred debates among observers, politicians, and Nigerians alike.
With Okowa, a ranking member of the PDP who was the party’s vice presidential candidate in the 2023 election, joining APC, analysts argue that the most recent defections are a big blow to the main opposition party’s move to retake power in 2027.
But some PDP chieftains, including Bode George, former Senate President Bukola Saraki, and ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar, are unmoved by the development.
They say the party would bounce back stronger ahead of the next general elections.
“What impact has the APC, as a government, given to the people? There is anger in the land. What do you think they are going to do there, if not for personal embellishment?” George, a former Ondo State military governor, said on Friday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“The people of Delta are naturally PDP members. They know the kind of positive impact they enjoyed under the PDP national government. So, if you now decide to go, we wish you the best of luck. We’ve seen it before—those who trooped out eventually came back, because they’re heading into an organisation that is so personally owned.”
