Former Delta governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, said he dumped Atiku Abubakar-led Peoples Democratic Party for the ruling All Progressives Congress in the interest of his state to tap from Abuja’s resources.

Mr Okowa, who has a pending N1.3 trillion fraud case before the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), at a rally organised on Monday by the APC to welcome him and Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to the ruling party, said they both joined the APC to protect Delta State’s interest.

“Whatever decision we took was based on the common good and the need to change our path in the best interest of our state,” Mr Okowa said. 

He addd, “It was not about me. It was not about the governor, but the fact that there is the need for us to connect to Abuja. That goodwill that is in Abuja, that resource that is in Abuja, of which Delta State is a large contributor, there was a need to connect to it.” 

Mr Okowa, who was Mr Abubakar’s running mate in the 2023 presidential election, said his defection to the APC was “bold, strategic, patriotic, and well-intentioned.”

“I was governor for eight years. I was in opposition. I did my best, but we lost a lot,” Mr Okowa said. 

Meanwhile, Mr Abubakar had reacted to Mr Okowa’s defection, saying he bore no grudges against anyone defecting because it is part of politics in a democracy.

“As someone who holds fast to these values, I bear no grudges against anyone for exercising their right to political alignment. Defections, alliances, and realignments are part and parcel of democratic politics. We’ve seen them before, and we’ll see them again,” the opposition leader said in a statement last Friday.

The former vice president said coming election is not about political parties but a battle between suffering Nigerians and incompetent and failing Mr Tinubu government.

“Let us be clear: the coming political battle is not APC versus PDP, or LP versus APC. It is Nigerians versus an administration that has plunged the nation into untold suffering. The economy is in freefall,” Mr Abubakar said.