Former governor of Delta State and Peoples Democratic Party PDP vice presidential candidate in the 2023 Presidential election Senator Ifeanyi Okowa has said former Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki has no moral rights to speak on his defection from the PDP to the ruling All Progressive Party APC saying Saraki also went to the APC from PDP.
Speaking on Arise Television , Okowa said
“First of all, yesterday we did defect to the APC. I did not watch Senator Bukola Saraki’s speak but I heard about what he said. Ordinarily, I believe we are a political family in Delta State.and once we take decisions together I have to go with my political family because without that mily I have no politics to play. That’s Number one.
Speaking further, the former governor who was officially welcomed to the APC stated:
“Two, I did not expect that somebody like Senator Bukola Saraki should be able to speak concerning me because he knows he had also moved to the APC before and eventually returned so he has had movements to and fro so I don’t even think he has the moral rights to speak about my defection at all, but I don’t want to join issues with him but the truth is this; we have a political family in Delta State.
“Previously, we were in the PDP but several things have been going on in the Party, the Peoples Democratic Party, whilst I do not want to join issues with people but our stakeholders 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 communication coming from the leadership of the PDP at the moment, it did not appear to us that was a proper political vehicle to continue because it also did not appear to us that PDP was ready to be competitive in the 2027 General Election.
Recall Saraki had earlier stated:
“Yes, it is unbecoming and shocking for the running mate to the standard bearer of a leading party to abandon ship to join the ruling party. This is unprecedented and nobody should try to justify such an act with the talk of being put under pressure. It is simply a sign of how low we have sunk as a polity. The country is experiencing a collapse of leadership values”
