Okowa never said he regretted being on that ticket with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. He also did not say that he regretted being the Vice-Presidential candidate of the PDP.
Former Delta Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has never harbored any remorse for serving as the Vice Presidential candidate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 elections.
Mr. Olisa Ifeajika, the Executive Assistant to Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori on Public Enlightenment (Projects and Policies), provided the clarification during a press conference in Asaba on Wednesday.
Ifeajika, in response to a report that was attributed to Gov. Okowa following an interview with Arise Television on Tuesday, stated that the reaction was to clarify the record.
Ifeajika said, “The immediate past Gov. Okowa never said he regretted being on that ticket with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. He also did not say that he regretted being the Vice Presidential candidate of the PDP.
“When Okowa was asked the question of what happened to the PDP, particularly in Delta, as a Vice-Presidential candidate where it was expected that he would win.
“What he said was that it was discovered that the southern Nigerians appeared to have resolved on having a president from the Southern extraction.
“And that was what happened, during our campaigns, we realized that that was what the people wanted, and they got it. It was not as if PDP had bad candidates.
“That was why Sen. Bola Tinubu won the election and the other person from the South that did well in the Presidential election was Peter Obi. It was a justification of that resolve of the people of the south to have a president from the south.”
“Okowa met all the profile as listed by Atiku and was duly nominated to run as vice presidential candidate in that election. As a party man, he could not have left the party, he had to work for his party.
“Like Okowa said in the interview, that during the campaign, it was obvious that the people in the south have resolved in their minds that they wanted a president from the south.
“So, as much as we try in our campaign to convince them it was obvious that they wanted president from the south.
“If whoever puts it out there was doing an interpretative reporting, that was a wrong interpretation of what Okowa said.
“Okowa’s defection to the APC has nothing to do with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) invitations and questioning. He has answered to the petitions and the commission has not invited him again because facts presented were not contradictory.”