An aide of President Muhammadu Buhari has confirmed that Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio will defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress on Wednesday.
Akpabio, the Senate’s minority leader and a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, has been a staunch critic of the APC government.
“I’m confirming that the APC family as earlier indicated will formally receive H.E, Godswill Akpabio on Wednesday, August 8, 2018 at an elaborate ceremony in Akwa-Ibom State,” Buhari’s adviser on National Assembly (Senate) matters and former senator Ita Enang said.
Akpabio’s defection will hand the APC, which only recently lost about 15 senators including Senate President Bukola Saraki to the leading opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) a massive boost in the South-south as the country gears up for its next general elections in February.
It will also help the APC hold on to its majority in the Senate.
In preparation for his switch of the party, Akpabio met with Senator Bola Tinubu in Lagos and President Muhammadu Buhari, who is on a 10-day vacation in London.
This reported defection to APC comes days after he was welcoming former members of the APC who have left the ruling party for the PDP.
Besides Enang, Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, also confirmed Akpabio’s planned defection from the PDP to the APC.
Amaechi was quoted as saying: “I saw him and he confirmed but I don’t know about the date.”
But the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said it is doing everything possible to retain Akpabio within its fold.
Meanwhile, four Personal aides of Senator Akpabio have reportedly tendered their resignation letters.
Their resignation was disclosed during a meeting of stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ikot Ekpene
Led by Senior Legislative Aide, Barrister Utibe Nwoko, the aides dissociated themselves from any planned defection of the Senator to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and pledged their unalloyed support to the re-election of Governor Udom Emmanuel in 2019.
