The Senate Minority Leader Godswill Akpabio visits President Muhammadu Buhari in London (photo credit: state house)
The major opposition party in Nigeria, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has said it was shocked to learn that the Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, met with President Muhammadu Buhari in London on Sunday.
The party said it never knew that one of its own was going to the British capital to have a meeting with Buhari of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
As stated by the PDP, Akpabio told the party’s National Working Committee that he was on his way to Germany.
Akpabio’s meeting with Buhari further sparked speculation that the former governor of Akwa Ibom and a bigwig of the PDP was planning an uncommon defection to the APC.
But spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a chat with newsmen on Monday in Abuja, said the party was not aware of Akpabio’s planned move to APC.
”He told us he was going to Germany and if he ended up in London, maybe, he had a technical stopover,” Ologbondiyan said.
“The PDP has no issues with Akpabio whatsoever and the party will not respond to speculations of his readiness to defect. We have no notice of the said defection and all I can say now is that we will cross the bridge when we get there.”
However, reports have it that the PDP leadership is aware of Akpabio’s planned exit from the party
Famzn News understands that a governor on the platform of the party had openly accused Akpabio of anti-party activities.
Sources say the governor made this accusation when the leaders of the party visited Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu recently.
The leaders of the party had visited Ekweremadu due to a siege laid to his house by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
“We were all surprised with the governor from the southern part of the country, who accused him [Akpabio] of playing a double game. He asked why Akpabio had refused to speak out for the party of recent and why he had been absent at [sic] party’s events, the Punch quoted a source as saying.
“We all knew that Akpabio was actually meeting with APC leaders at night, and laughing with us during the day. But we didn’t know how to handle it.
“Akpabio, however, refused to speak to the governor. Rather, he was just smiling, even though he seemed not to be enjoying the talk.
“The DSP (Ekweremadu) tried to calm the said governor down, but you know he is very outspoken. He said it without fear or favour, that he knew that he was saying.”