By Haruna Salami
Former minority leader and senator representing Akwa Ibom North west, Senator Godswill Akpabio has advised the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki to honourably resign
to avoid being forced out of office.
Addressing a press conference after Wednesday’s plenary in Abuja, he said, it was a norm the world over, that when a lawmaker resigns from his former political party, he relinquishs his office to allow the majority party form their leadership.
Akpabio said Saraki should borrow a leaf from him as former minority leader, saying he honourably resigned the position when he defected from PDP to APC to pave way for PDP to elect their minority leader.
He said “it’s a tradition all over the world that when you defected to another party even as a Senate President like Saraki, you have to resign from the office of the Senate President”.
“APC is still the majority party and they need to form a new leadership. The Senate President should honourably resign just like I did”, Akpabio insisted.
Speaking further on his experiences as a member of APC, Akpabio said, he was fulfilled being a member of a ruling party, adding that he defected to the APC in national interest and wished that his advice and suggestions would not be looked at with suspicion being a part of the ruling party now.
On his former party, the PDP, Akpabio said it did nothing in the South-South in the last 16 years, adding PDP government did not construct a kilometre of road for those years. “In the last 16 years, I did not see 1 kilometre of road done by PDP government in Akwa Ibom state, but today APC government is constructing the road from Akwa Ibom to Calabar. The road has been a death trap and I must thank this government for that.”
“From the national and local perspectives people look at me as a leader and I must tell you that in 2019, it would be difficult for any other party to perpetrate the South south”.