Senator Ede Dafinone is the lawmaker representing Delta Central in the Senate. In this interview, he speaks on the recently concluded All Progressives Congress (APC) National Assembly primary elections and other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports
You defeated Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, your predecessor, who is a former deputy president of the Senate. What do you think went wrong for him and what did you do right to end such overwhelming support from the constituents?
First of all, I should thank my party and the leaders of the party, especially our governor, His Excellency Sheriff Oborevwori, for the support given through the process of the primaries. Let me say that the process was free and transparent. But when you ask what went right and what went wrong, I want to take us back to 2023, when I participated in the elections for the Senate and out of the eight local governments that make up Delta Central, I won five local governments.
The Deputy President of the Senate ran for governor at that time and won in just four of the local governments of Delta Central. Roll forward to 2025, when our governor announced that the members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were moving to our party, the APC.
At that time, myself and many leaders of the APC welcomed the governor into the party. Senator Omo-Agege refused to acknowledge the governor as the leader of the party and stayed away from that process. So, in the last 12 months, myself and many others in the APC have familiarised ourselves with those who came to the party. We’ve gotten to know them, broken bread with them, attended meetings in order to build a party.
Throughout that process, the former Deputy President of the Senate stayed away. It’s now time for primaries, he feels that the small faction of the party that was with him in the old APC will deliver him at the primaries. It cannot happen. The party is made up of both the former PDP members and the old APC members, of which I also have a significant support base.
So, his result is really a reflection of the fact that he stayed away from the party and left the space empty, which of course, myself and others have taken up the space in order to become candidates of the party in the primaries. I should also say that I’ve been involved in the politics of the state from 1998. I was a founding member of the PDP and first contested primaries for the Senate in 2006 and again in 2011.
So I’m not new to politics and I’ve played politics in the PDP, in DPP, which changed to the Labour Party after some time and then APC from 2014. So, in the elections of 2023, I came into that space with support across all the parties that were in the field in Delta State at that time. I must say with the reputation that I’ve made, also my father who was also senator for the same region, helped me to gain access to my people, gain their support.
On top of that, I think I also present myself to my people as somebody who is accessible. My phone number is literally shared on billboards across Delta Central. I have an open door policy both in my home and the office, inviting my people to come to me with their problems for me to solve. But of course, I can’t solve every problem, but I do try and solve as many as possible for all my people.
The report says you won with 116,000 votes to Senator Omo-Agege’s 3,643 votes. But Omo-Agege says that result is not correct, rather that he won decisively. What do you say in response to that?
To give you the background to how the result could show such a wide margin, he distanced himself from the party. And this is a party that he expects to come out and support him at the primaries.
On April 26, I declared my intention to run again for this position. I invited the party leaders, the party members to my declaration. On that day, we had local government council chairmen from all the local governments, party leaders from all the local governments. It was a who’s who of politics in Delta Central.
My phone number is literally shared on billboards across Delta Central. I have an open door policy both in my home and the office, inviting my people to come to me with their problems for me to solve them
That declaration showed the support my party was willing to give me for this position. Senator OmoAgege didn’t consult with the party, didn’t visit leaders of the party and didn’t engage at any stage. In fact, when we were doing our congresses, he ran parallel congresses, showing a complete disregard for the party structure, a complete disregard for the party members. And therefore, the distance he put between himself and the party is what has led to the result today.
You say he has announced himself as the winner, and I’ve seen some of his publications. But in all the publications, you’ll see that he never mentions any figures. He doesn’t say how many votes he got or where he won or where he feels the process went wrong. He comes to the table with general statements that he won.
No details, no numbers, no facts, no videos, no pictures, just a statement that he won. This is not a way he should go about it. I have in my statement at Ugheli, called on him to join forces with the rest of the party. We’re all APC. This is not a war. This is party politics. The losers should be welcomed back to the party in order to build the party.
It seems that when you speak about his antiparty, his activity during parallel meetings and so forth. It almost fits into the narrative that you were an anointed consensus candidate that was used to ensure that OmoAgege doesn’t clinch the ticket. What’s the number again?
The number of votes is 111,262.
But in 2023, when you were elected in the general election, you only got 109,000 votes to win the poll. How come you got more votes in your party primaries than what you got in the general election in 2023?
There’s actually absolutely nothing wrong with political party members coming together to say that they have a preferred candidate. I have spent the last one year going around the new members of the party, going around the old members of the party, to let them know what I’ve been doing in the Senate, to let them have a report, to offer services to all my constituents. The problem with the statement made about being anointed is that you suggest that it is created. My position in the party is not created.
As I said earlier, I’ve been in politics since 1998, and having played different roles, having contested several times, I think I’m recognised as somebody who not only is a politician, but I focus on political activity at the grassroots. I have a foundation in Delta State that has empowered over 2,000 people, training young men and women in various skills acquisition. I’m not new to politics.
I’ve been in service now for three years, and the anointing by the party is a reflection of the work I’ve done with the party and the popularity that I have today. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being anointed. You said something about the general elections figures. I don’t think it’s right to make that comparison.
We have had a significant party registration process since that time. Also remember that we have had the coming together of the members of the PDP with our party, the APC. So, that has swelled the number of members. We’ve also got people in the membership database of the APC since that time. So, there was a key interest in participation, which is reflected in the numbers.
