President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has said joining the All Progressives Congress (APC) was the right political decision for him, insisting that his years in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were spent in the “wrong party.”
Akpabio made the remarks on Friday during the inauguration of access roads leading to the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates in the Karsana District of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), an event held as part of activities marking President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s third year in office.
While responding to comments by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, who described him as an “uncommon performer” during his time in the PDP, Akpabio asked members of the APC National Working Committee not to misunderstand the remark.
“Please ignore the comment of the honourable minister that I was an uncommon performer in PDP. He is not talking about PDP of today,” Akpabio said.
The Senate President explained that he had already served more than seven years as governor of Akwa Ibom State before the APC was established in 2014, adding that he immediately realised the new party better reflected his political ideology.
“A progressive-minded person like me should belong to a progressive family. And therefore, when APC came to be, I discovered that that was my group, that I was in the wrong party called PDP. So I took my exit early and joined the progressives.”
Akpabio also claimed that the PDP has become deeply divided over the years, describing Wike as the leader of what he called the party’s “winning faction.”
“Shortly after that, you now know what happened to PDP. They are fragmented. So, I don’t know how you are going to put it together, but I recognise you as a national leader, national leader of the winning faction of PDP because you are doing well.”
Reflecting on their political relationship, Akpabio recalled that Wike visited Akwa Ibom while he was governor and toured one of the state’s underground drainage projects. According to him, Wike had then remarked that he would “perform miracles” if he ever became governor of Rivers State.
The Senate President said Wike eventually fulfilled that promise after assuming office as Rivers governor, adding jokingly that he once told him he had supported his governorship ambition “not to surpass what I did” and advised him to “take it easy.”
According to Akpabio, Wike’s commitment to infrastructure development has since become part of his “DNA.”
Friday’s remarks come just days after Akpabio criticised the PDP during the inauguration of Akinwumi Ajibola Street in Abuja, where he questioned why the opposition party was still in existence and urged Wike to allow it to “die.”