The recent defection of former governor of Akwa Ibom state, Senator Godswill Akpabio, from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), came as a rude shock to many in the state and beyond, but not same to his former deputy governor, Engineer Patrick Ekpotu, who said the defection was “long awaited”, and goes to show that Akpabio is incapable of operating within an opposition platform because of “his usual reliance of force of power apparatus”.
Ekpotu, who served with Akpabio as commissioners under former governor Victor Attah administration, and later as deputy governor to Akpabio is his first term in office as governor of Akwa Ibom state, said: ” His recourse is often to rely heavily on apparatus of State security to cow people into submission and dominion. His decision to embrace the APC now, among others, is because APC is today the custodian of that State apparatus. And I think he is highly mistaken for misapprehending that President Buhari is cut out in the weaknesses of former President that was recklessly used to his political peril and became the first to dump him.”
According to Ekpotu, “even if Buhari avails him the security apparatus, remember that Akpabio is not used to elections which is the norm today but ‘return of entire number of votes’ in INEC register to himself. But With INEC’s card reader system today, hardly would we have such number of votes in consideration, let alone to be “returned”. So all odds are against him and the APC.”
Akpabio’s defection, according to his former deputy, will only “shift the theater of totalitarianism, confusion and eventual destruction to his new abode.” Adding that a rude shock awaits the former Senate Minority Leader, as he said, “A journey into that past rather evokes disdain and repugnance following its glaring shortcomings to which the people had long answered objections and cannot allow a replay no matter where Akpabio derived his inspiration. I see, not just the PDP in the State, but also majority of its citizens playing this out strongly, stoutly, and committedly in days ahead,” he stated.
Dismissing the comparison between Akpabio and Senate President, Bukola Saraki’ defections, as misplaced, the former deputy governor argued that, “In Saraki’s Kwara, his ancestors may have left behind many distinctions to give him a dominating hold on that State and their people cherish it. Unfortunately it is not so in Akwa Ibom where no such commensurate wand is inspired, be it in depth, attainments, legacies and fairness.”
Senator Akpabio, on the other hand, is “Surrounded by those who constantly drum to him the beauty of his weird world, he get encouraged to live in delusion. He is fully conscious of these shortcomings but rather than work to improve on them, pretends that all is well. And APC will soon know his true value,” Ekpotu said.