APC members in Akwa Ibom petition Oshiomhole saying Akpabio is not welcome in their midst

SEVERAL members of the All progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State have written to the party chairman Adams Oshiomhole saying that the senate majority leader senator Godswill Akpabio is not welcome in their ranks following his recent defection.

Last week, it emerged that Senator Akpabio is considering leaving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and joining the APC due to intractable differences between himself and Akwa Ibom State governor Udom Emmanuel. As a result, Senator Akpabio met with vice president Professor Yemi Osinbajo to discuss joining the APC and has since met with party leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to perfect the plan.

Over the weekend, Senator Akpabio flew to London to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari who is on a health vacation there. It has now been agreed that Senator Akpabio will be received into APC by Professor Osinbajo at a special rally in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State on Thursday.

However, the move has not gone down well with the Akwa Ibom chapter of the APC who have been at war with Senator Akpabio for years. Under the aegis of Akwa Ibom Progressives Watch, they have petitioned Mr Oshiomhole, protesting the defection in a letter dated August 3, noting with deep concern the broad chorus of disapproval and complete despondency amongst different strata of members over the matter.

Endorsed by the Akwa Ibom State APC chairman Innocent Sylvanus and its secretary Ubong Victor, the letter read in part: “Our group is an integrity watch team whose support for the APC is driven by the party’s change agenda, the fight against corruption as well as the near immaculate personality of the leader of the party, President Muhammadu Buhari. We metamorphosed from Ibom Transparency Watch under the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, working assiduously in the last seven years to entrench in the party sterling values, such as integrity, justice, accountability and transparency, which are lacking in our political system.

“Hence, we have been on the watch so that such persons with tendencies which violate these values are not found tip-toeing around our party. For this reason, we feel sad, so are most members of the APC in Akwa Ibom State who looked up to our party as institution that will evict moral perverse people as Senator Godswill Akpabio from position of authority, by his admission of into our party.

“Senator Akpabio who is now seeking asylum in the APC called our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, very unprintable names during the 2015 electioneering. He ordered the immediate closure of the Ibom Airport on the day Buhari, who was then the presidential flag bearer of our party visited Akwa Ibom State and after our president won the 2015 election despite all their antics, Akpabio encouraged former President Goodluck Jonathan to challenge Buhari’s election victory in court.”

Also, the group informed Mr Oshiomhole that Senator Akpabio polarised ethnicity to its zenith in his bid to annihilate the Ibibio majority and destroy the Oron ethnic nationality, when he was governor of Akwa Ibom State. Meanwhile, it is reported that Pa Moses Ekpo, the deputy governor of Akwa Ibom State, has resigned his position.

He is said to be moving with Senator Akpabio to the APC, this week. Although the resignation has not been confirmed officially by the Akwa Ibom State government, an APC media organ has tweeted that Pa Ekpo, the oldest deputy governor in Nigeria, has tendered his resignation letter.