Former vice presidential candidate, Ifeanyi Okowa, has said he was not arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

According to him, he was only invited by the anti-graft agency, which he honoured when he returned from overseas.

Okowa, a former governor of Delta State, said this during an interview on Arise TV on Tuesday.

"I was not arrested by the EFCC. A communication was sent to me and I was overseas. Upon my return, I went to respond to their query. I am not afraid of being investigated because I worked in the interest of Deltans," he said.

On his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Okowa stated that he took the decision to restore Delta State to the corridors of Power in Nigeria.

He said, “We have a political family in the Delta state. Previously, we were in the PDP. But several things have been going on in the party, the People’s Democratic Party. While I do not want to join issues with people, but our stakeholders, our leaders in this state, have sat down to look at the events in the last several months. And because of the events that we see and the communications coming out from the leadership of the PDP at the moment, it did not appear to us that that was a proper political vehicle for us to continue in. Because it also did not appear to us that PDP was ready to be competitive in the 2027 elections.”

Okowa added, “Having looked at this very thoroughly, along with many other things that have been going on within the party, as to various court cases, as to who exactly is the national secretary of the party, and many other issues, we do not appear to be really ready for competition in the 2027 elections. So, having looked at this, alongside the fact that we believe that as a political family in Delta state, we needed to be able to move ahead, to truly connect to the resources, as I did say yesterday, it’s not about a borrower. Yes, he’s the leader of the party as a governor. It’s not about me. It’s about the larger Delta state and the larger political family that we have.

“And I thought, in my own opinion, and in the opinion of the vast majority of leaders, because we had different levels of consultation. It was not just a question of a decision of the governor, or a decision between the governor and Dr. Okowa. We had various levels of meetings with several stakeholders, and even had to make consultations with some of our other leaders, who are not even politicians, before we came to this decision. And I think that our decision is right politically. I believe that we mean well for our people, and it is important for us to chart a path for ourselves that we think we can truly trust, and that could bring political gains to the people of Delta. And that was why the decision was taken.”

ASA