The mammoth crowd was unspeakable. The atmosphere was electrifying. Major roads around the stadium were gridlocked as a result of human and vehicular movements. Vendors had a field day raking in fortunes selling party paraphernalia to the faithful. The weather was clement. And voices from the venue drowned the cacophonous sounds that oozed from the large speakers. This was the scenario at the Ikot Ekpene Sports Stadium, venue of the reception rally for Senator Godswill Akpabio who defected to All Progressives Congress.
Secretary to Government of the federation, Boss Mustapha, who stood for his boss, President Muhammadu Buhari, extolled the sterling qualities and achievements of Senator Akpabio, as the former governor of the state, saying that the South South geo-political would be swept away by APC with his coming into the party.
‘’The entire South South has been taken over by the APC. Things are about to change and old thngs have passed away and more new things are coming’’, he said Mustapha knocked the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), saying that even if all their aspirants were combined together, none of them was capable of defeating Buhari in the presidential polls come 2019.
‘’I know the aspirants in the PDP. I don’t have anything against anyone of them. Some of them are friends and I have worked with some of them. And If I have my way I will ask INEC to allow all of them to compete, but Buhari will defeat them. Buhari is the only candidate that can pull 10 million as head start. So, why do you want a government that can only give 300,000, that is a waste’, he said.
National leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, while commending Akpabio for dumping the PDP, also lampooned the party for 16 years of sleaze and bad government. ‘’Today we are sharing in our vision. PDP has no vision for 16 years and we gave them opportunity to change Nigeria and they failed.
They believe in sharing, looting of the treasury. Nobody can account for all the accounts we have in Nigeria, but Buhari came and said we should have a single treasury account.
‘’It is a war of ideology between the conservative and progressives. We believe in doing the good work for the people, they believe in believe in looting. They are the leaders of yesterday; we are the leaders of today, tomorrow and the years to come. They believe in sharing, we believe in educating the people and in the political renaissance of the country.’’
On his part, Adams Oshiomhole, National Chairman of the party, also taunted the PDP, describing it as a torn umbrella in the face of the current ‘’terrible political weather’’, noting that the party misruled the country for 16 years. The former governor of Edo State who described Akpabio as an ‘uncommon defector’ also took a swipe at the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, describing him as lacking the quality to lead the Red Chamber and urged Akpabio to use his wealth of experience to bear in the running of the party in the state.
