Former Akwa Ibom Governor and ex-Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Godswill Akpabio has said he did not defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC) but moved to the party in national interest.
Akpabio, who was governor and Senate Minority Leader under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said he moved to the ruling APC to stabilise the polity and serve his nation.
In an interview published by Sunday Vanguard, Akpabio, while responding to a question on his high-profile defection, said:
“I did not defect, I moved to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the national interest especially if you look at what is happening at the national level. I was surprised that people who founded the APC were the same people determined to ruin that party , to bring down the government of President Buhari just because election is approaching, so that they could go and contest under another platform. I felt there is need for us to have a country before we talk about elections. People say statesmen think about the next generation while politicians think of the next election. I saw a trend where a lot of us are now becoming politicians thinking only of the next election without thinking of the next generation. I moved in the national interest, to stabilize the polity and in order to support the current administration. And I thin that, to a large extent, my intention was achieved and so it was referred to as ‘uncommon defection’ because it was one defection that stopped a lot of defections. I was not thinking whether I will win election in 2019 when I was moving because, at that time, my state was totally PDP; when I moved, people were shocked but today, less than two months after, the entire state, 98%, has turned APC.”
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