Atiku made a serious mistake picking Okowa as his running mate in 2023 – Abba Moro

Senator Abba Moro, representing Benue South, has stated that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would have won the 2023 presidential election if it had not selected former Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as the running mate to its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. 

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Moro described the choice of Okowa as a “serious mistake” that undermined the party’s chances at the polls.

Moro’s remarks follow a controversial statement made by Okowa during an interview on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Monday, where the former governor expressed regret over his selection as Abubakar’s running mate, claiming it was against the will of his people. Okowa and Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on April 23, a move Okowa said was in the “best interest of our people” to ensure stronger political alignment with the federal government.

Commenting on the fallout from the 2023 election, Moro criticized Okowa’s failure to secure Delta State for the PDP, questioning his commitment to 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,” Moro 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.”

He further noted the poor electoral outcome in Delta despite Okowa’s stature as a sitting governor and former senator. “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?” Moro asked. “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.”

The senator added that Okowa’s recent statements and defection indicated a lack of dedication to the PDP. “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.”

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