Abba Moro, the senator representing Benue south, says the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would have won the 2023 presidential election if it had not chosen Ifeanyi Okowa as the running mate of Atiku Abubakar, its presidential candidate.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday, Moro said the choice of Okowa, the former governor of Delta state, as the opposition party’s vice-presidential candidate was a “serious mistake“.

This is coming on the heels of a comment by Okowa, who said he regretted being Abubakar’s running mate during the 2023 elections.

Okowa, who spoke on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Monday, said his being the PDP’s vice-presidential candidate was against his people’s will.

On April 23, Okowa and Sheriff Oborevwori, governor of Delta, defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The former governor of Delta said his defection to the ruling party was in the “best interest of our people” and the need for the people of the state to “connect to Abuja”.

However, Moro said Okowa’s claim of regret after the PDP failed to win the presidential election in Delta state showed that his “soul” was not in the party.

“Given what we know now, with the hindsight that we have now, some of us think that the party would have won the election if other candidates, other than Okowa, had been picked as the vice-presidential candidate from the south,” the Benue senator said.

“I think there is an error of judgment on the part of everybody that was involved in the choice of Okowa as the candidate.

“How else would you characterise this scenario that a sitting governor, a former senator, and a presidential candidate of a party couldn’t deliver his state even to the presidential candidate?”

“And to think that two out of the senators from that state were from the opposition parties other than the PDP.

“So, I think that picking Okowa as the vice-presidential candidate in 2023 was a very serious mistake.”

Moro added that Okowa’s action showed a lack of commitment to the party.

“As it is now, you can safely conclude that we lost the election because of lack of commitment,” he said.

“Otherwise, how can you explain that shortly after losing his state, that ordinarily should have been a very easy pick for the PDP, instead of rendering an apology to the party and Nigeria, he’s now talking about regretting being on the ticket?

“His soul was not in the PDP. His soul was not in that election, and that is why we performed very miserably in Delta state.”

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Jesutega Onokpasa says President Bola Tinubu has failed woefully based on the performance of his administration.

Onokpasa stated this in an interview with Arise Television on Sunday, warning that the president may end up being a one-term president if he did not improve in his performance.

Onokpasa also expressed school why Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State, who he referred to as his cousin, defected to the APC.

According to him, the governor’s defection to the ruling party does not add any value to the APC or the state.

The APC chieftain reiterated that the ruling party should not focus on the defection of opposition politicians into its fold but on good governance.

Onokpasa added that the defections of opposition leaders to the APC negate the principles of democracy.

“It is not a question of people defecting to our party. It is a question of are we ruling well? In that sense, we failed woefully.

“President Bola Tinubu has failed woefully to rule well, provide food for Nigerians, and give succour in these hard times.

“Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, who recently defected to our party, is actually my cousin. I don’t have the slightest idea why he defected to our party. He did not inform me. I wish him well,” he said.

Ex-Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, has said he regretted his decision to run as the vice-presidential candidate alongside Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 presidential election, admitting that it contradicted the zoning and wishes of his people.

Speaking on Arise Television, 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 said, “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.”

He also fired back at former Senate President Bukola Saraki for criticising his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Okowa, former presidential running mate to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the PDP in the 2023 general elections, said that Saraki lacks the moral standing to comment on or criticise his defection.

“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,” Okowa said.

“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 explained that the decision to defect was not taken lightly and was a collective resolution by key political figures in Delta State.

He said it was necessitated by internal crises and a lack of strategic direction 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,” Okowa noted.

“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 pointed to the PDP governors’ resistance to forming a coalition and the ongoing leadership crisis as clear signs that the opposition party is not prepared for serious political competition ahead of the 2027 general elections.