Ifeanyi Okowa

Ifeanyichukwu Arthur OkowaCON(born 8 July 1959) is aNigeriandoctor and politician who served asGovernor of Delta Statefrom May 2015 to May 2023.A member of thePeoples Democratic Party, he was the party's vice presidential candidate in the2023 presidential electionrunning alongsideAtiku Abubakarwho was the presidential candidate.
Born inOwa-Aleroin 1959, Okowa graduated from theUniversity of Ibadanin 1981. After his undergraduate education, he worked as a medical officer for several years before entering politics. Okowa first established himself in local politics before entering the state cabinet ofGovernorJames Iboriin 1999. After leaving cabinet in 2006, Okowa made a failed primary bid for governor before returning to the state cabinet under his former opponentEmmanuel Uduaghan. By 2011, Okowa moved to national politics andsuccessfully ranforSenatorforDelta North. After four years in the Senate, he returned to Delta and waselectedgovernor by a wide margin in 2015 becoming the firstethnic Ikaor person from the state's north to be governor. Okowa was laterre-electedby a similar margin in 2019.
Okowa was born at Owa-Alero inIka North-EastLocal Government Area ofDelta State.He attendedEdo College,Benin City(1970–1976), then went on to theUniversity of Ibadanwhere he studied Medicine and Surgery, graduating in 1981 with an MBBS degree. After leaving theNational Youth Service Corps, he worked with theBendel StateHospitals Management Board as a Medical Officer. He entered private practice as Director, Victory Medical Centre, Igbanke in 1986.
Okowa became Secretary to the Ika Local Government and then Chairman of the Ika North-East Local Government Council (1991–1993).
He was Delta North Coordinator of theGrassroots Democratic Movement(GDM).
He joined the PDP in 1998, and assisted in GovernorJames Ibori's campaign in 1998/1999. 
He served as a Commissioner in the Delta State government for Agriculture and Natural Resources (July 1999 – April 2001), Water Resources Development (April 2001 – May 2003) and Health (September 2003 – October 2006).
Okowa resigned to contest in the 2007Delta StatePDP governorship primaries, but did not win the governorship primaries.In June 2007, Ifeanyi was appointed Secretary to the Delta state Government.
Ifeanyi was elected Delta North Senatorial candidate in the January 2011 PDP primaries with 942 votes, but the result was challenged by party leaders who favoured Marian Amaka Alli as candidate.He was re-elected in a rerun where he scored 1,446 votes, against 108 votes for Marian Alli.In the April 2011 election for the Delta North Senatorial seat, Ifeanyi won 98,140 votes, ahead of runner up PrinceNed Munir Nwokoof theDemocratic People's Party, who won 67,985 votes.It was reported that there was still tension regarding the election in January 2013.Ifeanyi finally clinched the ticket for the gubernatorial election in 2015 under the PDP with 406 votes on 8 December 2014.He won the Delta State Gubernatorial elections 2015 in April 2015 with 724,680 votesand was inaugurated as Governor on 29 May 2015.
In the 9 March 2019 Governorship election, Okowa, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, got 925,274 votes to defeat his opponent, theAll Progressives Congresscandidate, Great Ogboru, who garnered, 215,938 votes.
As a sitting governor ofDelta Statein 2020, he establishedUniversity of Deltain his home town Agbor. He also set upUniversityofScience and Technologyin Ozoro and Dennis OsadebeUniversityin Anwai all in Delta State.
In Okowa's first term, his administration announced the partialprivatizationof the state-owned Delta Line bus company. At the end of the privatization process, 60% of Delta Line was bought byGod is Good Transport Development Company(GTDC) for ₦160 million while 40% remained under the ownership of the Delta State government. Immediately, calls of fraud were raised as the owner of GTDC,Chidi Ajaere, had supported Okowa's 2015 campaign and fellow bidder, the Delta State Council of theAmalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees, claimed that they had offered ₦2 billion for the same stake. The AUPCTRE and its organization, theNigeria Labour Congress, claimed that GTDC initially offered the concession committee only ₦80 million compared to their ₦2 billion, yet GTDC was chosen when they doubled their offer to ₦160 million paid in two parts while the AUPCTRE was never called back by the committee; AUPCTRE also claimed that GTDC never completed their second payment of ₦80 million. Okowa's commissioners attempted to defend the sale by claiming that Delta Line was in debt, however, former Delta Line Accountant-General David Akpemegin claimed that the company had nearly finished its debt payments at the time of the sale and financial records show that the Line was profitable according to AUPCTRE, who opposed the privatization. Reports also stated that Okowa appointees such as Commissioner of Finance and Chair of the Concession Committee David Edevbie actively supported GTDC throughout the process despite their low bid. Further, experts claimed that GTDC's acquisition was in part to get rid of a competitor and reports showed a drop in quality of Delta Line services after the sale. Okowa's Chief Press Secretary Olisa Ifeajika defended the administration's sale as merit-based and citing GTDC's "vast experience in transportation sector."GTDC also defended itself by saying that Ajaere had no "special relationship" with Okowa and that the company was the most qualified bidder.
In December 2021, a two part investigation by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting found irregular expenditures, disregard for financial regulations, and evidence of financial misappropriation in the Delta State Auditor-General's annual report for 2019. Several ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) along with the State House of Assembly were implicated for irregularities in the investigation of the report. Some notable findings include: Office of the Secretary to State Government's inability to account for ₦278.5 million in public funds, members of the Okowa administration illegally ignoring Freedom of Information requests, State Board of Internal Revenue's questionable use of ₦107.74 million in funds and the extra-budgetary expenditures of the ministries of Health and Agriculture along with inflated costs for House of Assembly members' vehicles. Officials mainly ignored requests for comment or referred the matter to Auditor-General Paul Aghanenu, who stood by the report but stated that he could not answer further questions without the approval of the Secretary to State Government.
In November 2024, Okowa was invited by Port Harcourt office of theEconomic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) for questioning over alleged mismanagement and diversion of 13% derivation meant for Delta State between 2015 - 2023, amounting to N1.3trillion. He was detained by the anti-graft agency.