Former Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, has expressed deep regret over his decision to contest as the vice-presidential candidate alongside Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 presidential election, admitting it went against the zoning sentiments and political mood of his people.
Speaking during an interview on Arise Television, Okowa revealed that his alignment with Atiku under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ticket clashed with the expectations of his home state and the wider Southern region.
“Even when we were campaigning, I realised our people were not interested in having another northerner come into power.
“But the decision had already been taken at the federal level by the party (PDP) and I had been nominated. Still, in retrospect, I now believe I should have gone with the will of my people.”
Okowa, who recently defected from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC), also fired back at former Senate President Bukola Saraki for criticising his defection, stating that Saraki lacks the moral authority to comment on the matter.
“I did not expect that someone like Senator Bukola Saraki should be able to speak concerning me, because he knows that he had also moved to APC before and eventually returned.
“So he has had movement to and fro. So, I don’t think that he has the moral right to even speak about my defection at all.”
Justifying his switch to the APC, Okowa noted that the move was a collective decision by political stakeholders in Delta State, driven by internal fractures and the lack of strategic vision within the PDP.
“Several things have been going on in the party. While I do not want to join issues with people, as stakeholders, our leaders in this state have sat down to look at the events in the last several months,” he said.
“Because of the events that we see and the communications coming out from the leadership of the PDP at the moment, it did not appear to us that that was a proper political vehicle for us to continue in.”
He further lamented the PDP’s leadership crisis and its refusal to form a strategic coalition, which he sees as a major handicap ahead of the 2027 general elections.
