Defection: Osinbajo meets Akpabio at Villa

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday met with the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, reportedly to perfect the lawmaker’s defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The former governor of Akwa Ibom State arrived the State House Villa by 3.06pm with the Presidential Aide on National Assembly (Senate), Senator Ita Enang. 

The duo went straight into the Vice President’s wing at the State House Villa. The two Akwa Ibom politicians came an hour after President Muhammadu Buhari departed for Bauchi State on an official engagement.

The meeting, which lasted till around 5.20pm, came on the heels of Akpabio’s defection plot. Akpabio is said to be mulling defection over his rift with the current governor of Akwa Ibom, Udom Emmanuel.

Our correspondent reports that while Akpabio was with the vice president, the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of his party, the PDP, was also going on, with Senate President Bukola Saraki and other defectors from the APC in attendance.

A ranking senator told Daily Trust that Akpabio had since 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, who did not want be named, said.

Our correspondent reports that if Akpabio decamps, he would be the second senator from the oil rich Akwa Ibom to join the APC. In January last year, Senator Nelson Effiong (PDP, Akwa-Ibom South) joined the APC.

A text message sent to Enang to confirm whether the vice president’s meeting with Akpabio was in connection with the defection was not responded to.