LAGOS FEBRUARY 21ST (URHOBOTODAY)-Delta State Governor Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa has said that contrary to speculation that he planned to move to the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), he would remain a solid member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In an interview with our correspondent, in Abuja, Okowa said his present preoccupation as the governor of the state is to deliver the dividends of democracy to his people and help bring about lasting peace to the troubled Niger Delta region.
According to him “In the first instance, I have a philosophy I have been elected to govern the people. Yes I am in the PDP and I remain in the PDP. In governance you must be able to separate the issue of partisan politics otherwise you will realise that from day one you would have lost track in what you are doing”.
The governor stated further that as the chief executive of Delta State “I am a governor to the people in PDP, APC, APGA, Labour as well as people in several other parties and therefore I must see myself to be serving the people and that is what I am doing. I tell people there is time to play politics but if you start playing politics in your first year or even second or third year, you will get distracted and you will not be able to carry on with your duties”.
“So I will say as a governor I have good relationship with the government at the center because I have tried to stay away from talking party politics but offering advise and wanting to partner with them based on the need for mutual partnership that will help both the state and the federal government especially since my state is one of the oil rich states,” he said.
“I think that partnership is very important for us to go into. The Federal Government to a very large extent has also kept that relationship with my state because with the security challenges that we have that partnership must be real for us to be able to tackle it properly and we have been able to build that synergy together. So I don’t have any challenge as regards our relationship. As regards my leaving the PDP, I am fully in the PDP and I will remain in the PDP”.