Godswill Akpabio reportedly meets Yemi Osinbajo as the lawmaker is believed to be planning to defect from the PDP. Akpabio was said to have spent up to two hours with Osinbajo at the meeting in Aso Rock
It was learnt that Bukola Saraki stopped Akpabio’s planned defection on the floor of the Senate at the last parliamentary session
As the minority leader of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, is reportedly planning to leave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All
Progressives Congress (APC) the lawmaker has met with Yemi Osinbajo, the country’s vice president.
Daily Trust reports that Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom state, arrived the State House Villa by 3.06pm with Ita Enang, an aide to President Muhammadu Buhari on the National Assembly (Senate).
The report said Akpabio and Enang got to Aso Rock an hour after President Muhammadu Buhari departed for Bauchi state on an official engagement.
NAIJ.com learnt that the meeting between Akpabio and Osinbajo lasted
for about two hours. Even though details of the meeting were not known, it is believed that it could be
related to Akpabio’s planned defection over his rift with the current governor
of Akwa Ibom, Udom Emmanuel.
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Coincidentally, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which Akpabio currently
belongs, held its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Thursday, August 3. Senate President Bukola Saraki and
other defectors from the APC attended the meeting.
The report quoted a top ranking senator as saying that Akpabio had perfected his plans to dump the PDP.
“If not for the impunity of Saraki, he (Akpabio) would have announced his defection penultimate Tuesday when we proceeded on recess. He was to announce it that day but Saraki stopped him,” the
senator reportedly.
Akpabio would be the second senator to join the APC from the Niger Delta.
Senator Nelson Effiong from Akwa-Ibom South had earlier joined the APC from the PDP.
The report said Enang refused to respond to a text message asking if the meeting Akpabio held with Osinbajo was part of the former’s defection plan.
NAIJ.com earlier reported that the Peoples Democratic Party was said to have made frantic efforts to dissuade
Senator Godswill Akpabio from defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC). The senator is reported to have fallen
out with his successor, Governor Udom Emmanuel, and the PDP is making effort not to lose him.
A PDP source told The Nation that the national chairman of the party, Prince
Uche Secondus, was locked in a marathon meeting with Akpabio in his Asokoro Abuja home at the weekend
over the issue.
