APC Deceived Me And Rigged Election For Okowa, I’m Sure Tinubu Will Intervene – Ned Nwoko

Senator Ned Nwoko has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of betraying him after losing the Delta North senatorial primary election to former Delta State governor Ifeanyi Okowa.

In the primary held on May 18, Okowa scored 113,309 votes, while Nwoko received 2,612 votes.

Speaking during an interview on Arise TV, the senator said he joined the APC after receiving assurances from former party chairman Abdullahi Ganduje that he would get an automatic ticket for the 2027 election.

According to him, the promise of a guaranteed ticket was one of the reasons he left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the APC in February 2025.

Nwoko said he would not have defected without believing his political future in the party was secure.

“I certainly was told before I came into the party there would be an automatic ticket for me.

“Why would I just leave like that without making sure I have a secure ride?” he said.

The senator also rejected the outcome, claiming the election was manipulated in favour of Okowa.

He insisted that he had evidence showing he actually won the primary and vowed to challenge the result in court.

“We have submitted them. Halfway through the primary, we got a message on our phones that no results should be announced at the ward level — that they should be collected and then announced later at the national in Abuja.

“And so, we thought we’d be law-abiding. Suddenly, we saw some news. We saw only that one video — of one of the wards in Ika North East,” he sai

Nwoko questioned the credibility of the announced figures, especially from one ward in Ika North East, saying the crowd seen in a circulated video did not match the thousands of votes recorded in the official result.

“It was just one video, showing three people in a line, and then the rest that were probably not more than 500. That’s what I saw in the video. Although in the result, they said there were 5,000,” he stated.

He argued that only one ward video had been made public and challenged party officials to release evidence from all 98 wards involved in the election.

“The video that you saw, where Ifeanyi Okowa was announced as the winner, was just one video from one ward out of 98 wards. Maybe they should show us other videos. They must show us the figures,” he insisted.

The senator maintained that his camp had already submitted videos and results from all wards to support his claim that he won the primary.

“I wouldn’t accept it because I have a mandate. I have a mandate by the people. We will head towards litigation,” he said.

Despite the dispute, Nwoko said he would not work against the APC but expressed hope that President Bola Tinubu would intervene in the matter.

“I’m not going to say I’m going to work against the party; I’m going to work for the party. But I can assure you of this: I’m sure that the President will intervene in this matter.

“We have submitted the results from the 98 wards, with the videos. I’m not worried. I’m not thinking about working against the party, and I wouldn’t do that because of the interest of the people that make up the party, the masses,” he added.

Nwoko also alleged that old APC members in Delta State had been pushed aside after the defection of former PDP members into the ruling party.

“The President knows what’s happening in Delta. He knows that the legacy APC members have been shoved aside by the new PDP guys that came into the party. He knows that they control the party. He knows that there are fundamental problems in Delta,” Nwoko said.

Nwoko further claimed that former APC National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun had earlier assured members that the state executive committee would be dissolved to allow old APC members gain more influence, but nothing changed.

“We were assured that there would be some power-sharing formula. We were even told, for example, that the state EXCO would be dissolved and that there would be nominations to enable the old APC to get a foothold into the government. But that was never done,” he alleged.

The senator insisted he would not accept the primary result because he believed he won the majority of votes across the district.

“No, I would not concede. Because I was there. If you have the evidence — I have the video. We won the primary. I couldn’t have won his ward. That would be foolhardy of me to think I would win his ward. But the majority? Of course, yes,” he said.

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