President Bola Tinubu met with Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja, marking the governor’s first encounter with the President since his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on April 23, 2025.
Governor Oborevwori arrived at the presidential villa premises around 3:45 pm, accompanied by no one, media reports revealed.
On April 23, 2025, Oborevwori became the first incumbent governor of Delta State to abandon the PDP since 1999.
His predecessor, Ifeanyi Okowa, Deputy Governor, Monday Onyeme, commissioners, local government chairmen, and the grassroots machinery moved en bloc to the APC after a closed-door meeting in Asaba.
Okowa was the PDP’s vice presidential candidate in the 2023 election.
Delta’s wave of defection follows similar realignments in Rivers and Cross River, trimming the PDP’s governorship map to ten states and shaking a region once regarded as a fortress for the opposition.
The PDP, Labour Party, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party are grappling with internal crises compounded by defections to the APC, which has left their parties in disarray. Feelers from the APC identified Governors Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom, Peter Mbah of Enugu, Aba Yusuf of Kano, and suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers as four new converts expected to join the party in the coming weeks.
