Ifeanyi Okowa, the recently-departed governor of Delta State, claimed that he had political differences with James Ibori, his former boss and predecessor.
Okowa and Ibori, according to news reports, have been at odds ever since the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary contest was held in the state last year.
Recall that Ibori backed the former Commissioner of Finance, David Edevbie, while Okowa backed the former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Sheriff Oborevwori.
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Oborevwori was sworn in as governor of Delta on Monday after ultimately winning the gubernatorial and primary elections.
Okowa said to reporters during a farewell celebration in Asaba, the state capital, that he and Ibori had a falling out over Ibori’s choice of successor and resolved to pitch his tent with Oborevwori.
Before the 2015 governorship election, Okowa said that Edevbie, who was also a Commissioner in the Ibori government, had deceived him into thinking that he would uphold the Delta PDP zoning clause.
The PDP vice-presidential candidate for the 2023 election claimed that he discussed his concerns with IborI over Edevbie but that the former governor was unmoved.
He said: “I don’t like to talk about it but obviously there’s no doubt that we didn’t work together.
“We went into the primaries not agreeing on the same candidate, we talked about it but he(Ibori) did not want to shift ground on his candidate. That’s the truth and I did not agree with that candidate for basic reasons which I made clear enough to him and also to his own candidate.
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“I did not hide it. Till tomorrow, I speak about it in truth not because I thought I was a god that needed to install somebody. David Edevbie is my friend. We were with the former governor in his tenure together as commissioners, but in 2014, when it became obvious that it was the turn of the Delta North — Delta Central and Delta South had had their turns — I heard that David was going to run and he was indicating interest.
“I went from Abuja with three of my friends to visit him in Lagos — and I said ‘David, please, it’s only fair, I know that there are so many people competing but I’m coming to you as a friend. It will not be fair if you run. Governor James Ibori has been there, Governor Uduaghan has been there, it’s obviously the turn of the Delta North; why don’t you allow us to have our space so that we can all be said to be part of the state? Thereafter, we can all work for you to become governor’.
“And at the end, he said ‘I will not run anymore, I will support you’. I thanked him and left back to Abuja. And then suddenly, the next thing we heard was that they had endorsed David but this same David had committed himself to me.
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“So we went into the race, a very tough race but God enabled me to win.”
Okowa went on to say that despite selecting Edevbie as a commissioner during his first term in office, he continued to move on with his plans to succeed him as governor in 2023.
Although the governorship would go to Delta Central in 2023 because to zoning regulations, he insisted that the previous commissioner would not benefit from this.
He said: “In the second year, I started hearing that he was holding meetings in Lagos and other places where they were already prepping him to be governor without anybody discussing it with me.
“In the first instance, he did not want the zoning to Delta North, so if the zoning was going to continue, he’s my friend but he shouldn’t be the one to benefit from the zoning he did not want.
“I’m careful in what I do so it will be difficult for me to support someone outside Delta Central but my only mindset is that somebody who did not believe in the zoning cannot be the one to benefit from it and I made it clear to the former governor.”
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Okowa said Ibori met with him a few days before the primary election to reach a compromise on a fresh candidate — but he noted that it was too little, too late.
“I told him it would be difficult to withdraw support from my candidate. I don’t do things like that,” Okowa said.
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