The appearance of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa at a town hall meeting for presidential candidates organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) and Arise Television on Sunday in Abuja which was designed for them to address Nigerians on topical issues, was marred by protests from hundreds of participants who were said to be angered by the governor’s non-qualification to speak on behalf of Atiku Abubakar.
Okowa had meandered his way into the capacity-filled hall where presidential candidates of other political parties invited for the show had already seated, but as soon as the governor arrived, hundreds of participants stood up to protest against his appearance to represent the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who was conspicuously absent.
Shouts of “No to Okowa,”, “No Way”, “No Way, Okowa Must Go”, “Okowa Must Go”, rented the air, creating a state of rowdiness and confusion in the hall.
The New Diplomat’s correspondent reports that it took the effort of the proprietor of Arise TV, Prince Nduka Obaigbena who is Okowa’s kinsman, to calm the protesters and brought the situation under control.
The New Diplomat investigation has revealed that there has been a growing resentment against the PDP vice presidential candidate, Okowa, following his ignoble role in ceding the presidential ticket of the party which he earlier championed must come to the South, to the North for him to become vice president.
Our correspondent reports that the protest which took nearly half an hour to subside, jolted Gov. Okowa so much so that he lost composure in his attempts to speak about the PDP presidential manifesto.
One of the protesters against Okowa’s appearance at the Townhall gathering who identified himself as Comrade Gooday Agbasika explained that “Gov. Okowa is synonymous with betrayer and a traitor”, adding that “no one should believe him because he is full of deceits.”
Also, Henrietta Ezechukwu, who spoke to our correspondent described Gov. Okowa as a “Betrayer-General” who is not qualified to mount the rostrum to talk to Nigerians”, adding that “Okowa cannot be trusted, so he is not qualified to stand in that rostrum to address Nigerians”.
It would be recalled that the Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, championed the cause of all Southern governors sometime last year when they made the popular “Asaba Declaration”, where they all agreed to ensure that the presidency of Nigeria rotates to the South after Buhari’s eight years tenure from the north.
Gov. Okowa, bubbling in the euphoria of that declaration, also read out the content of the communique signed by all governors of the South, including himself.
When it was time for his party, the PDP, to determine its presidential candidate for the 2023 general election, Okowa reneged on the agreement of the Southern governors and preferred to take the position of vice president. He was alleged to have worked against the interest of Presidential aspirants from the South, giving his vote and that of delegates from Delta State, to support Atiku Abubakar.
This has not gone down well with most people from Southern Nigeria who have sworn that they will ensure that Okowa and his party would not only lose the election in Southern Nigeria, he will not achieve his ambition of becoming the vice president in 2023.
