The former senate minority leader, Mr. Godswill Akpabio has formally defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Addressing a crowd at a rally held at the Ikot Ekpene Township Stadium on Wednesday, Akpabio who was accompanied to the event by APC senators and members of the national working committee of the party said he ditched the PDP because it has no vision.
The proselyte also said he joined the APC because he discovered that President Muhammadu Buhari “is a man of integrity and a nationalist.”
Besides, he said he decamped from his former party to APC to help sweep away poverty and impunity.
“The country is at war and all the hands must be on deck to salvage the situation and not to aggravate it.
“As keepers of national emergency, everyone should put heads together. I decided to join to emancipate the people and provide succour for the people,” he said.
He added that the current PDP has no vision and the leadership is replete with arrogance.
Also speaking, the senate majority leader, Mr. Ahmed Lawan, described Akpabio as a “nationalist and patriot who believes in Nigeria’s unity.”
“This defection surpasses all other defections. This is a defection that has shaken the opposition PDP. They followed Akpabio everywhere to prevent him from defecting but he ignored them,” said Lawan.
Earlier in his speech, the managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC), Mr. Nsima Ekere, said change had come to Akwa Ibom and south-south.
He said that Akwa Ibom had joined the progressive states because the people were dissatisfied with the long misrule of the PDP.
He said that Akpabio built the people and provided them with infrastructure and described the present PDP government in the state as a “failure.”
Akpabio, 55, was the governor of Akwa Ibom State on the PDP platform from May 29, 2007 to May 29, 2015.
In 2002, he was made the commissioner for petroleum and natural resources by the then governor, Obong Victor Attah.
Between 2002 and 2006, he served as a commissioner in the ministries of petroleum and natural resources, local government and chieftaincy affairs, as well as lands and housing.
In 2006, he aspired for the governorship of the state and won by defeating 57 other contestants to emerge the candidate of the PDP.
With Vanguard and NAN reports
