President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday received Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori at the Presidential Villa, Aso Rock, Abuja.
Governor Oborevwori arrived at approximately 3:45 p.m. and was seen entering the premises unaccompanied, according to eyewitness reports.
This meeting marks the governor’s first official engagement with President Tinubu since his recent defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
On April 23, 2025, Oborevwori made history by becoming the first sitting Delta State governor to leave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999.
The defection was part of a wider political realignment that saw former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, current Deputy Governor Monday Onyeme, cabinet members, local government chairmen, and a significant portion of the PDP’s grassroots structure move en masse to the APC after a closed-door session in Asaba.
Notably, Okowa was the PDP’s vice-presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections.
Delta State’s political shift mirrors recent movements in other South-South and Southeast states such as Rivers and Cross River, further reducing the PDP’s hold to just ten governorships nationwide and undermining its once-solid influence in the region.
According to APC insiders, more defections are anticipated in the weeks ahead, with Governors Umo Eno (Akwa Ibom), Peter Mbah (Enugu), Abba Yusuf (Kano), and the suspended Rivers Governor Siminalayi Fubara reportedly considering moves to the ruling party.
The PDP, alongside the Labour Party and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), is currently contending with mounting internal crises and defections that have left all three parties weakened and in a state of uncertainty.
Credit: Punch except headline
