ASABA: Former Delta State Governor and 2023 PDP vice-presidential candidate, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, has fired back at ex-Senate President Bukola Saraki for condemning his recent defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC)
In an interview on Arise TV’s The Morning Show on Tuesday, April 29, Okowa dismissed Saraki’s criticism, arguing that the former Senate President lacked the moral authority to question his political decisions.
I didn’t expect somebody like Senator Bukola Saraki to speak about me because he also defected to the APC before eventually returning to the PDP. I don’t think he has the moral right to comment on my defection, Okowa stated.
His response followed Saraki’s public condemnation of the move, in which the former Kwara State governor described the defections of Okowa and current Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori as a collapse of leadership values. Saraki, in a statement posted to his official X (formerly Twitter) account, called the switch to the ruling party “unprecedented” and said it reflected poorly on the political climate.
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Saraki wrote, It is unbecoming and shocking for the running mate to the standard bearer of a major party to abandon ship. This is simply a sign of how low we have sunk as a polity.
Both Okowa and Governor Oborevwori officially joined the APC on Monday, April 28, at a high-profile event attended by Vice President Kashim Shettima and other top APC figures. Okowa emphasized that the decision was not personal but was made collectively by political stakeholders in Delta State.
Meanwhile, Saraki has maintained that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is undergoing a necessary phase of “rebirth and reorganisation,” expressing confidence that the party remains viable ahead of the 2027 general elections.
