The National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, has accused some APC leaders in Akwa Ibom State of working for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, ahead of the 2023 general election.
Akpabio, a former Minister Niger Delta Affairs, said the APC leaders would declare their support for the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, in the day and endorse Atiku at night.
He said this when he received the leadership of 250 presidential support groups based in Akwa Ibom State at Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area of the state on Friday.
“I have heard of several other groups being set up within the party by other party leaders. I am not against it, so long as they are being set up in support of the party and our presidential candidate. I will personally support and attend their meetings anytime I am around in the state.
“What I will not support is a situation where some leaders of the party in the state would be shouting Asiwaju in the day and PDP (Atiku) in the night.
“I am very much aware of a particular person in our party, who has publicly endorsed the governorship candidate of the PDP and its senatorial candidate, but would rush down to Uyo to say I am the chairman of the rally for Tinubu. Which Tinubu are you talking about?” Akpabio was quoted as saying in a statement issued on Saturday by his Chief Press Secretary, Jackson Udom.
The two-term former governor of Akwa Ibom State, however, urged the groups to ensure the victory of the APC at all levels in the forthcoming general election in the state.
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Akpabio said he was encouraged by the genuiness in their actions and attitudes to the success of the party, saying: “These are the real grassroots politicians and anybody who will not embrace these groups is not a politician. No matter how I identify with the centre, if I am not at home with people like you, I am not a politician. This is grassroots politicking.
“Now that I have you, I will want you as a group, to formally write and invite our presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed, through me, that we are ready to receive him and his entourage in a town hall setting before our rally.
“We want him to know that through you people, the APC has penetrated Akwa Ibom State to the grassroots and without this kind of evidence one would not know what is happening in the party.
“Gone are the days when some leaders would rush to Abuja to claim that the party’s success was done by them, whereas it is you people that did it. They are already positioning themselves in Abuja. I call them Abuja politicians.
“You see somebody who is a Deputy Director in the campaign office, taking its governorship candidate to court. He has seven cases in court against Akan Udofia.
“He is destabilising the APC in Akwa Ibom State for the ultimate benefit of the PDP. He has already positioned himself in Abuja because he knows one or two persons in other parties so that if this one fails (God forbids), he will rush back to PDP and say I did it. These are the kind of people we are expected to work with,” the former senator stated.
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