This came on the heels of the latter's refusal to step aside from the gubernatorial race as previously allegedly agreed between Omoboriowo and Ajasin.
Omoboriowo and certain other stalwarts of the party including Chief S.A. Akerele against popular sentiment, left for the ruling NPN under which he ran for the guber seat.
When the federal Electoral Commission declared Omoboriowo the winner on 16 August 1983, the announcement sparked deadly riots.
[5] After the coup on 31 December 1983 that brought General Muhammadu Buhari to power, he was jailed, as were almost all the former governors and their deputies, but was then released without charge in less than 30 days.
He authored and published a book on themes on Awoism for which he came under severe criticism from other Awoists who saw the work as a crude attempt by an under-achiever to suck-up to Baba Awo.
In the NPN, Omoboriowo met and bonded with other Nigerian political icons one of whom was Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu with whom he was friends until the latter's death in late 2011.
In the twilight of his life Omoboriowo found solace in religion and became an unashamed, professing born-again Christian.
Ovation Magazine publisher, Dele Momodu tweeted "the elephant has fallen" while the Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan referred to him as a "politician who was not afraid to stand for his political beliefs"