Why I ditched Atiku – Okowa

Former Delta State Governor and 2023 running mate to Atiku Abubakar, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, has explained why he is now supporting President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid.

Speaking on Saturday at the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign rally in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Okowa said he had “seen the light.”

“I have seen the light. Today, we are on the right track because the president is laying a solid foundation,” he declared.

Okowa warned against any return of the fuel subsidy, stating that those who previously destroyed Nigeria’s foundation through the subsidy regime must not be allowed to “destroy the future of our children.”

At the same rally, Director General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Abdulaziz Yari, set a target of 2.3 million votes for Tinubu in Rivers State in the January 16 election. He said the figure was achievable, noting that about 2.8 million Permanent Voter Cards had been collected out of 3.3 million registered voters in the state.

Yari asked supporters to back Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike in delivering the votes and described Rivers as a state from which the party expected “nothing less than 80 percent.”

Senate President Godswill Akpabio noted that Rivers was the only South-South state Tinubu won convincingly in 2023 and expressed confidence that the feat would be repeated. He also claimed that under Tinubu, Nigeria now generates more revenue from taxation than from crude oil.

APC National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda described the Tinubu-Shettima ticket as “the best for now in Nigeria,” while Senator Magnus Abe defended the Rainbow Coalition in the state, saying its main interest was to return the president to power.