* L-R:Saraki and Okowa
By Pathfinder Reporter
Tuesday April 29, 2025
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Former Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, has chided former Senate President, Bukola Saraki for faulting his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).
Okowa, who was the running mate of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar under the ticket of PDP in the 2023 general election, said that what he did, Saraki did the same thing in 2015 when he and some PDP governors defected to the APC to defeat the PDP candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election.
On Monday, key political stakeholders in Delta State, including Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, his predecessor, Okowa, and political appointees in the state officially defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Following the defection Saraki, in a strongly worded statement, said Okowa’s defection to the APC is an indication of how low politics has become in Nigeria.
Given the fact that Okowa was the PDP’s Vice Presidential candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Saraki said the ex-governor’s move was “unprecedented” and symptomatic of a deeper leadership crisis.
“It is shocking and unbecoming. It’s simply a sign of how low we have sunk as a polity,” Saraki said.
Reacting, Okowa, while speaking on Arise Television’s “The Morning Show” on Tuesday, said he does not expect someone like Saraki to comment about his decision to move to another political party.
Okowa maintained that Saraki should not have the moral right to comment about defection because he, too, had once abandoned the PDP for the APC.
“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,” Okowa said.
Okowa stressed that the gale of defection in Delta State was a collective decision of all political stakeholders in the oil-rich state, adding that their decision to defect was motivated by the lingering crisis in the PDP.
According to him, recent communication from the party’s leadership showed that the party is not the proper political vehicle for Delta State ahead of the 2027 election.
“Several turned 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, and 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, Okowa stated.
Okowa asserted that the PDP governors’ rejection of a coalition, coupled with the leadership crisis in the party,y suggested that the opposition party is not ready for competition in the 2027 election.
In another development, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa has expressed regret over his decision to run as the vice-presidential candidate alongside Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 presidential election, admitting it may have contradicted the wishes of his people.
Speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Monday, Okowa described his acceptance of the role as a misalignment with the prevailing sentiments in Delta State—an issue he said he has deeply reflected upon.
He offered insights into his political decisions, the internal shifts within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the growing support among Delta stakeholders for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
While defending his record in office, including infrastructure achievements, free maternal and child healthcare, and the performance of his successor, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, Okowa acknowledged that joining Atiku’s ticket in 2023 came at a significant political cost.
“Even when we were campaigning, I realized 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, and I had been nominated. Still, in retrospect, I now believe I should have gone with the will of my people,” he declared.
He linked the PDP’s failure in Delta during the presidential poll to that sentiment, acknowledging that while he ran out of loyalty to his party, the South was interested in producing President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor.
However, Okowa was quick to point out that the tide turned just three weeks later in the governorship election, where PDP triumphed in 21 out of the 25 local governments.
“That showed the people still believed in us, believed in me. They said you’ve done well, and we will support the governor you have chosen.’ And they did,” he said.
On insinuations that his defection was to have his ‘sins forgiven,’ Okowa maintained that there were no sins to be given as he had not committed any, adding that he was never arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) but only honored an invitation by the commission.
Okowa said: “I did well for the people of the state. Petitions can be written by anybody, but whatever petitions are written, the right of investigation is with the EFCC.
“So, there are no fears concerning that at all. And I have never spoken to Adams Oshiomole; we talked for the first time only yesterday because we are of different political parts, and because we are of different political parts, we were not friends per se.”Political party merchandise
He defended his defection not as a personal political maneuver but as the result of extensive consultations across Delta State, adding that continued opposition politics had placed the state at a disadvantage in terms of federal access and influence.
Addressing the moral arguments against his defection to the APC, after serving in multiple positions under PDP, Okowa said he owes no one an apology.
“Yes, I was a key player in the PDP from the formative stages, but the PDP of today is not the same party we built in 1998.
“When you find that the values and vision you once believed in are no longer there, then you step away,” he said.
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