(Godswill Akpabio. Photo by Punch News)
Godswill Akpabio, the president of the Senate, claimed on Friday that he had been in the “wrong party” while he was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party and that he had found his political home after joining the All Progressives Congress.
In honor of President Bola Tinubu’s third anniversary in office, Akpabio spoke at the opening of access roads to the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates in the Federal Capital Territory’s Karsana District.
In response to Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike’s description of him as a “uncommon performer” while he was a member of the PDP, Akpabio asked members of the APC National Working Committee to ignore the remark, citing a time before the APC was established.
“Please disregard the honorable minister’s statement that I was an unusual PDP performance. He is not talking about PDP of today,” Akpabio said.
The Senate President described his political career, stating that prior to the APC’s founding in 2014, he had served as governor of Akwa Ibom State for more than seven years.
“A progressive-minded person like me should belong to a progressive family. As a result, I realized that the APC was my group and that the PDP was the incorrect party for me.
“So I joined the progressives and left early,” he remarked.
Akpabio claimed that the PDP had now disintegrated and acknowledged Wike as the opposition party’s “national leader of the winning faction.”
“You already know what happened to PDP shortly after that. They are fractured.
He remarked, “I don’t know how you will put it together, but I recognize you as a national leader, national leader of the winning faction of the PDP because you are doing well.”
Earlier in his speech, Akpabio described Wike’s visit to Akwa Ibom while he was governor.
He said the FCT minister had seen one of the state’s subterranean drainage projects and that he would “perform miracles” if given the chance to lead Rivers State.
The Senate President added that once Wike was elected governor of Rivers, he eventually fulfilled that pledge.
He also joked that he had backed him for the position “not to surpass what I did” and advised him to “take it easy.”
Delivering infrastructure has since been ingrained in Wike’s “DNA,” according to Akpabio.
Two days prior, Akpabio made a jab at the PDP at the opening of Akinwumi Ajibola Street in Abuja, saying he was shocked the opposition party was still in existence and urging Wike to let it “die.”
