Former Senate minority leader, Hon Godswill Akpabio has broken silence on the reason for his defection from the Peoples’ Democratic Party to opposition party, the All progressives Congress.
In a live interview with Seun Okinbaloyo on Politics Today, Channels TV, Akpabio said unlike the rumour making waves, he has no issue with Akwa-Ibom state governor, Udom Emmanuel, who is in fact a godfather to his children. He added that if there are however, local issues, they are things that can be sorted amicably because he personally thinks of a larger Nigeria and the national interest. “I believe strongly that in a period of challenges like this, we should all come together with all hands on deck,” he said.
Harping on the need for reward for whatever job well done, the former Akwa-Ibom governor revealed that he left the PDP because there were no reward systems put in place for some members that have stayed, fought and grew with the party.
He said “while some people are propelled by physical strength, i am propelled by the spirit of God. The PDP chairman thinks i’m moving against the tide, but i’m not. The problem is that my erstwhile party, the PDP have no reward system for some of us who have stayed, fought and grew with the party.
“I can’t believe that people who left the party in 2015 now decided to come back and we rolled out drums, threw pomp and pageantry and celebrated them as heroes of democracy and not destroyers of the party. So i wonder what they have come to do in the party. The most shocking of all is that one of the returnees was named the national leader of the party when there’s a sitting former president of the country in the person of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and sitting former vice presidents in the persons of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Alhaji Namadi Sambo. The longest serving senator in the whole of West Africa, Senator David Mark is also there.
“My colleague, the current senate president, who unfortunately was among those who joined to destroy the PDP in 2015, just attended a first day briefing and out of excitement, the national chairman announced him as the national leader. Having been the senate minority leader and by implication the chairman of the PDP congress in the National Assembly, i felt there was no more room for me.”
Asked if he intends to be the Senate president, Akpabio noted that he has no immediate interest in being the Senate president, but if God wills him to be, he wouldn’t say no because his name is Godswill.