Former
governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has clarified that he
did not defect to the All Progressives Congress, APC, but only moved to the
party.
Akpabio said
he was surprised that the same people who founded the ruling party were the
ones pulling it down.
The former
Governor, who represents Akwa Ibom North-West at the National Assembly, told
Vanguard that the same people were determined to ruin the party to bring down
the government of President Muhammadu Buhari just because of their selfish
interests.
Asked why he
defected to the APC, Akpabio 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 think
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.”
Speaking
further on the forthcoming general election, the former governor said there
will be no war in the country and added that only people who want war will see
war.
He said,
“There will be no war in Nigeria in 2019, people should not think of election
as war. Election should not be war.
“I
appreciate that question because recently I made a statement which I love to
make.
“I said,
‘Warsaw saw war’ because the political leadership in PDP in Akwa Ibom had said
that the current administration should recruit people and prepare for war, that
2019 will be war and that only the fittest would survive.
“So, the
youths and some elders of the APC met me to say that people are calling for
war.
“And I told
them that people calling for war have never seen war and that, in those days,
even when the worst enemies of mankind, Hitler, went to Poland which capital is
Warsaw to wage war, he thought it was going to be a cheap thing but it wasn’t.”
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