Former Delta State Governor and ex-senator, Ifeanyi Okowa, has hit back at former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, over recent comments criticizing his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Okowa, during an analysis on Arise TV and monitored by Ensurednews on Wednesday, said Saraki lacks the moral standing to speak on issues of political defection, referencing Saraki’s history of crossing party lines.
“Yesterday, we defected to the APC, I did not hear Bukola Saraki speak but I heard about what he said, ordinarily I believe we are a political party in delta state, and once we make decisions together because, without that family, I have no politics to play,” Okowa said.
“I did not expect that somebody like Bukola Saraki could speak about me because he knows that he has moved to APC and has also returned, so he has had movement to and fro, he has no moral right to speak about my defection but I don’t drag issues with him but the truth is we have a political family in delta state, previously we were in the PDP but several things have been going on in the party.”
Saraki had earlier criticized Okowa’s move, describing it as a reflection of the "depth of decay in Nigeria's political values." The former PDP presidential aspirant also expressed concern over the increasing trend of politicians abandoning ideology for convenience.
Responding further, Okowa pointed to internal party wranglings within the PDP as a major reason behind his decision. According to him, key leaders in Delta State and other stakeholders had become disillusioned following persistent issues with the PDP’s national leadership.
“As stakeholders and leaders in this state, I sat down to look at the events in the last several months and because of the things that we see and the communications coming out from the leadership of the PDP at the moment, it did not appear to us that it was a proper political vehicle to continue and it did not appear to us that the PDP was ready to be competitive in 2027,” he explained.
He cited unilateral decision-making, unresolved court cases regarding the party’s national executive leadership, the lack of cooperation with other opposition parties, and growing internal dissatisfaction as core issues that spurred the defection.
Okowa, who ran as the PDP’s vice-presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, defended the collective move by political actors in Delta State, describing it as a "strategic decision" to align with a platform capable of delivering political dividends.
“So if a party appears on its own by its current leadership to make a decision that has not been decided by fair governors and the all progressive congress and decide to have a decision-making meeting and they take a decision that there was a need for them to continue alone and there were no need for allowances, not ready to have mergers with political parties, the question is, how do they want to compete, having looked at this thoroughly, various court cases as to who is the national secretary of the party and many other things.”
“It’s not about the governor, me, it’s about the Niger Delta and the political family that we have. It was not just my opinion, it was the opinion of the vice majority of leaders, we had a lot of consultations, and meetings to make this happen and I believe that our decision is right politically.”
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