Ifeanyi Okowa, the outgoing Governor of Delta State has addressed the accusations of betrayal leveled against him regarding the southern presidency agenda.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary in May 2022 saw some stakeholders demand that the presidential ticket be zoned to the south.
However, the party disregarded zoning, sparking heated criticism from Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State who claimed that the decision was in clear violation of the party’s constitution.
This led Wike and the governors of Benue, Abia, Oyo, and Enugu states to form a group called the ‘G5’, who was believed to have worked against the success of Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate, in their election.
Reports held that Okowa had been repeatedly accused of betraying the South, allegations he continues to deny.
In a press briefing on Sunday, Okowa said he never agreed to plans for a southern presidency even though some governors mutually agreed on the region president succeeding President Muhammadu Buhari.
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According to him, the issue of zoning was never discussed as a main agenda at the meeting in Asaba but was only communicated thereafter.
He said:
“I don’t think there was any betrayal, people give the wrong communication. In the first instance, the meeting we held in Asaba never talked about the issue of a southern president. The meeting we held in Asaba was to discuss the issue concerning herdsmen and the need to find a stop to it.
“It was actually the meeting in Lagos… but people just misconstrue the two. It was in a follow-up meeting in Lagos that the issue came up and it was not actually part of our agenda but we did not know people had their own views; you know politics was coming.
“When we had finished, under ‘any other business’, the matter was thrown up and we just found that a lot of us were ambushed but a majority actually had their way.
“I don’t want to relate it to partisan politics now because some people in the PDP had supported it(southern presidency) and then the issue came out and it was introduced first by the governor of Ondo state, and supported by the then-governor of Ekiti state, and then it followed through and then one or two PDP people also made their comments.
“But for us, we could see that that matter had been discussed before — and it is part of politics so we let it go.
“I’ll tell you the truth behind the whole thing, if you’re going to back a situation, you must ensure that the situation is right for your party and that was the question I raised when people said it was a betrayal.
“There was no point where we said everybody agreed 100 percent or we were going to go this way.”
Okowa would be handing over to the state’s Governor-elect, Sheriff Oborevwori on Monday.
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