Abba Moro, the senator representing Benue south, says the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would have won the 2023 presidential election if it had not chosen Ifeanyi Okowa as the running mate of Atiku Abubakar, its presidential candidate.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday, Moro said the choice of Okowa, the former governor of Delta state, as the opposition party’s vice-presidential candidate was a “serious mistake“.
This is coming on the heels of a comment by Okowa, who said he regretted being Abubakar’s running mate during the 2023 elections.
Okowa, who spoke on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Monday, said his being the PDP’s vice-presidential candidate was against his people’s will.
On April 23, Okowa and Sheriff Oborevwori, governor of Delta, defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The former governor of Delta said his defection to the ruling party was in the “best interest of our people” and the need for the people of the state to “connect to Abuja”.
However, Moro said Okowa’s claim of regret after the PDP failed to win the presidential election in Delta state showed that his “soul” was not in the party.
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,” the Benue senator said.
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 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.”
Moro added 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,” he said.
“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.”