Saraki, Tambuwal, Mohammed woo Okowa with VP position

PDP will chase APC out of Presidency, Delta gov

Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State and his Bauchi counterpart, Bala Mohammed, all Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirants, in a closed-door meeting yesterday morning, with Governor Ifeanyi Okowa urged him to vie for the post of Vice President in 2023.

A source told The Guardian that at the meeting, which lasted a few hours, the visitors said Okowa was the man to work with because of his credentials.

A statement issued later by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Olise Ifejika, quoted Saraki, who led the governors and a former managing director of FSB International Bank Plc, Alhaji Mohammad Hayatu-Deen, as saying that Nigeria was in dire need of competent leaders to reverse the country’s slide into poverty, insecurity and anarchy.

He stated that Nigeria was the largest economy in Africa under the PDP, but regretted that the country had become the poverty and kidnapping capital of the world under the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government.

The statement also quoted Saraki as saying: “We had a very useful discussion with the governor; we have decided to come as four of us, who are aspiring to be president on the PDP platform.”

Okowa, in his response, underscored the importance of building consensus to solve challenges bedeviling the nation.

MEANWHILE, Okowa has said the PDP was working hard to rescue the country from the alleged hardship being meted on Nigerians by the APC-led Federal Government.

Speaking at a rally at Ughelli Township Stadium, where a former member of PDP, Chief Jaro Egbo, and his group were received back to the party from APC, Okowa said: “Let me thank our brother, Egbo, and his ‘High Voltage’ movement for deeming it fit to return home.

“PDP is well able to take over the Presidency, but we have to be very strong and courageous. Nigerians have suffered enough and they are tired, so we must give them hope that there will be light at the end of the tunnel.”

He urged the party faithful to go ahead and convince more people to join the PDP in its quest to rescue the Nigeria from “maladministration, noting: “We have always won in Ughelli North, but they usually write results in one ward and we will not allow anybody to write results again.