Okowa slams Saraki over defection criticism, Cites past party switch

A war of words has erupted between former Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, and former Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, following Okowa’s recent defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Okowa, along with Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and other key Delta State political figures, officially joined the APC on Monday, triggering a sharp rebuke from Saraki, who described the move as a sign of Nigeria’s declining political standards. 

Saraki, in a statement, expressed shock and dismay at Okowa’s decision, particularly given his role as the PDP’s Vice Presidential candidate in the 2023 election. He labeled the defection “unprecedented” and indicative of a “deeper leadership crisis.”

However, Okowa has fired back, asserting that Saraki has no grounds to criticize his decision. Speaking on Arise Television’s “The Morning Show” on Tuesday, Okowa pointedly reminded Saraki of his own previous defection from the PDP to the APC and subsequent return.

“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 stated.

Okowa emphasized that the mass defection of Delta State political stakeholders was a collective decision driven by the ongoing crisis within the PDP.

ALSO READ : 

He suggested that recent communications from the party’s leadership indicated that the PDP was no longer a viable political platform for Delta State, particularly in the lead-up to the 2027 elections.

“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 explained.

He further argued that the PDP governors’ rejection of a coalition and the party’s internal leadership struggles signaled a lack of readiness for the 2027 electoral contest.

#IfeanyiOkowa, #BukolaSaraki, #DeltaStatePolitics, #APCDefection, #PDP, #NigerianPolitics, #PoliticalDefection, #PartySwitch, #AriseTV, #2027Elections.