By Egufe Yafugborhi
For a politician who once occupied the number three position in Nigeria’s constitutional order, served two terms in the Senate and declared that he had completed his legislative assignment, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege’s decision to seek a return to the Red Chamber presents an intriguing twist in Delta State’s changing political history.
More intriguing is his choice of Delta Central, the district he represented for eight years. He is now facing Senator Ede Dafinone, the incumbent he helped bring into the Senate in 2023, but who now belongs to the political establishment that has taken over the party Omo-Agege once controlled in Delta.
It is a contest laden with political irony, bruised relationships and competing ambitions, raising questions about whether personal political capital can survive the collapse of an established political structure.
Today, Omo-Agege is seeking a Senate return on the platform of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), while Dafinone remains the APC incumbent, backed by a party now accommodating much of Delta’s former PDP political establishment.
From Ibori’s government to the Senate
Omo-Agege’s political journey has taken him through government, opposition politics and national legislative influence.
A lawyer, he began his major political career under former Governor James Ibori, serving as Executive Assistant, Commissioner for Special Duties and later Secretary to the Delta State Government between 2003 and 2007.
After leaving government, he returned to private business and political mobilisation, eventually emerging as senator representing Delta Central in 2015.
His re-election in 2019 elevated his stature further. He became Deputy President of the Ninth Senate, placing him among the most influential political officeholders from the Niger Delta.
But in 2023, he abandoned the familiar senatorial contest to challenge for the governorship under the APC against Sheriff Oborevwori, the PDP candidate and successor to former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.
It was a bruising contest that divided political loyalties across Delta. Oborevwori eventually polled 360,234 votes against Omo-Agege’s 240,229, ending his immediate governorship ambition but not his political relevance.
The Political Tsunami And The Lost Territory
The defining rupture came in 2025. Before Oborevwori and Okowa moved into the APC, Omo-Agege openly challenged their proposed entry.
At an APC stakeholders’ engagement in February, he declared that the two leaders had no moral ground to abandon the PDP, a party they had repeatedly described as insurmountable in Delta. He insisted they should remain in the PDP and rebuild the structure they had once celebrated.
He argued that the APC had already established itself in Delta, winning two senatorial seats and other legislative positions in 2023, and did not need the wholesale arrival of politicians who had spent years presenting the PDP as unbeatable.
But on April 23, 2025, Oborevwori, Okowa and a formidable assembly of former PDP political officeholders defected to the APC.
The development fundamentally altered the balance of power.
Interestingly, after the defection became reality, Omo-Agege issued a statement welcoming the governor and other defectors, describing their entry as a significant milestone for the APC and urging existing members to embrace them.
That public welcome, however, did not settle the question of who would control the party’s political machinery.
The former PDP establishment arrived with the governor, former governor, lawmakers, local government structures and a substantial political network. For Omo-Agege, the challenge became how to retain influence within an APC whose internal balance had changed dramatically.
Dafinone: From political successor to rival
The relationship with Dafinone gives the 2027 contest another dimension.
In 2023, Omo-Agege vacated the Senate seat to pursue the governorship, with Dafinone emerging as the APC candidate for Delta Central. Dafinone won and became his successor.
Three years later, the succession arrangement has become a contest for the same seat.
At the APC senatorial primary in May 2026, the party’s committee declared Dafinone winner with 116,252 votes against Omo-Agege’s 3,643. Omo-Agege disputed the outcome, claiming results collated from the district’s 85 wards showed he had won.
He subsequently resigned from the APC, joined the NDC and declared his intention to contest Delta Central again.
What might have been an internal party contest has consequently become a direct political confrontation across party lines.
For Dafinone, it is an opportunity to defend his mandate. For Omo-Agege, it is a bid to reclaim the seat he relinquished for a governorship ambition.
The strength of political fighter
Omo-Agege’s political appeal rests on his combative disposition, national connections and ability to remain politically visible outside government.
His supporters see a politician who does not easily surrender political ground. His journey from the Ibori administration to the Senate, re-election in 2019 and emergence as Deputy Senate President demonstrate a career built through successive political contests.
His 2023 governorship campaign also established him as a major challenger to the PDP’s dominance, despite his defeat.
Now, as the NDC’s most recognisable political figure in Delta, he hopes to translate that personal profile into a broader opposition identity.
His confidence is reflected in his declaration:
“We are contesting the 2027 general elections on the platform of the NDC and we are going to win.
“We will win because people power will ultimately defeat godfather power and empty boast in the general election.
“We know they will try to manipulate or rig as they always do because that is the only way they can win but we will stop them.”
He invoked former US President Abraham Lincoln’s description of democracy as government of the people, by the people and for the people, declaring that a new Nigeria was possible.
It’s important to note that personal political following is not the same as an organised electoral structure. Omo-Agege must demonstrate that his network can operate outside the APC, particularly in a state where influential politicians, elected officials and established political structures have converged under the ruling party.
The NDC must build ward-level organisation, attract alliances, secure agents and demonstrate the funding and mobilisation capacity required for a serious electoral contest.
There is also the question of public perception. Among some political observers, criticism of Omo-Agege centres on allegations that political benefits and opportunities have not been sufficiently distributed beyond his immediate political circle and community.
Such perceptions, whether justified or not, could become an issue in a contest requiring support across Delta Central’s eight local government areas.
His combative political language is another double-edged issue. At a campaign gathering in Uvwie on October 23, he introduced the expression, “Rig and die”, warning against electoral manipulation and threatening those involved in rigging.
His media aide subsequently explained that the warning was directed at electoral manipulators and ballot snatchers, not ordinary voters. Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo also entered the debate, questioning the issues surrounding the expression.
For Omo-Agege, the challenge is to defend electoral integrity without allowing threatening language to overshadow his political message.
Senate Return: An unfinished assignment?
There is an undeniable irony in Omo-Agege’s return ambition. Having once occupied the Senate’s leadership hierarchy, he is seeking another mandate from the same constituency after opting out of the seat to pursue the governorship.
His earlier suggestion that he had completed his legislative assignment makes the comeback particularly interesting.
Is the return driven by an unfinished political project, a desire to recover lost influence or a conviction that Delta Central requires his experience in the Senate?
His ambition is also tied to the wider NDC project. With governorship candidate Chris Iyovwaye yet to command the same public recognition as Omo-Agege, the former Deputy Senate President has become the party’s central political face in Delta. Whether that personal prominence can translate into a functioning opposition organisation remains another test.
Meanwhile, Dafinone has the advantage of incumbency and the political resources available to a senator seeking re-election under the governing party.
In 2023, Omo-Agege challenged Oborevwori from the commanding position of Deputy Senate President and APC governorship candidate. In 2027, he approaches another contest from outside the party he once led in Delta.
The former Senate leader is back, seeking to reclaim the seat he left behind. This time, the battle is not simply against Dafinone. It is against a transformed political establishment, a changed party landscape and the weight of expectations surrounding his own political record.
For Omo-Agege, the 2027 Senate ambition is more than a return to the Red Chamber. It is a test of how much political capital remains when the structure that once carried it has moved elsewhere.
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