Former Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, has responded sharply to criticism from former Senate President Bukola Saraki over his recent defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying Saraki has no moral ground to speak on the matter.
Speaking during an interview on Arise Television’s “The Morning Show,” Okowa said Saraki should be the last person to question his political move, given that Saraki himself once switched parties. Okowa noted that the former Senate President had also left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the APC before returning, which, in his view, disqualifies him from calling out others for doing the same.
“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 return. 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.
The backlash follows Saraki’s reaction to the wave of defections in Delta State earlier in the week. Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, Okowa, and other top PDP members officially joined the APC, in what many see as a major blow to the PDP in the South-South.
Saraki, in a statement, described Okowa’s move as “shocking” and said it revealed the depth of political decay in Nigeria. He called the former vice presidential candidate’s action “unprecedented” and a reflection of deeper issues within the nation’s political leadership.
Okowa, however, dismissed Saraki’s remarks and said the decision to leave the PDP was not taken by him alone. He explained that key political leaders in Delta State jointly agreed that the PDP was no longer a viable platform for their political future.
“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, 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.
He added that the PDP’s internal problems, particularly the rejection of coalition strategies and the ongoing leadership crisis, suggested the party was not preparing seriously for the 2027 general election. This, he said, was one of the main reasons many in Delta decided to move to the APC.
