The Senator representing Benue South, Abba Moro, has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would have won the 2023 presidential election if it had not chosen a former governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, as the running mate of its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Moro stated this during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday anchored by Seun Okinbaloye and monitored by our reporter.
Senator Moro described the choice of Okowa as the vice presidential candidate as a “serious mistake”.
Recall that the PDP after the primary set up a vice presidential candidate screening committee which eventually recommended then Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. But in a dramatic twist, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the party’s flag bearer, announced Okowa as his running mate. Unable to bear the humiliation, Wike went ahead to form a G5 group that worked against the party in several states particularly Rivers.
Senator Moro said Okowa’s claim that he regretted being the PDP vice presidential candidate when he failed to ensure that the PDP won in Delta in the presidential election showed that his “soul” was not in the party.
Okowa along with the Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, have dumped the PDP for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking when he was officially received by the leadership of the APC in Asaba on Monday, the former Delta governor said the defection was in the “best interest of our people in the state and the need for the people of Delta to connect to Abuja”.
But Moro said, “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.
“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 vice 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.”
He further stated 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.
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.
When asked whether it would be damaging for the PDP if Atiku left the party, the Benue senator said, “Well, Atiku definitely has his own place in history and in the formation of the PDP. He has his own place in the organisation of the PDP.
“He has his own place as a very strong member, as a two-time presidential candidate of the party. Yes, if he leaves, it will create a vacuum.”
