Senator Akpabio
The immediate past Senate Minority leader and former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio, APC, Akwa Ibom North West, Monday vowed that the Senate would declare seats of Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, former PDP national Chairman, Barnabas Gemade, Senators Rabiu Kwankwaso; Dino Melaye; Usman Nafada; Suleiman Hunkuyi and others who dumped the ruling, All Progressives Congress, APC for the Peoples Democratic PDP vacant.
Others are Senators Abdullahi Danbaba, Mohammed Shaaba Lafiagi; Rafiu Ibrahim; Ida Hamman Misau; Monsurat Sunmonu; Suleiman Nazif and Abdulaziz Nyako.
Answering questions from Journalists Monday in Abuja, Senator Akpabio who last week Wednesday dumped the PDP for the APC, said that he was not disturbed over calls from some quarters that his seat in the upper Chamber should be declared vacant.
Akpabio who was blocked at the Foyer of the National Assembly Monday and asked if he was perturbed about reports that his seat should be declared vacant, said, “Even as you are looking at me, do I look perturbed? I have not heard the report. Because the reason why I think that is a rumour is that there is, at the moment, no division in the APC.
"The APC is one family. If you hear about R-APC that was not really a political party that was not a division, and has since been consumed in what they call Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP). So, there is no division. And so, any defector from APC to PDP, we will like to declare those seats vacant.”
• Excerpted from a Vanguard report
NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s leading online newspaper. Published by Africa’s international award-winning journalist, Mr. Isaac Umunna, NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s first truly professional online daily newspaper. It is published from Lagos, Nigeria’s economic and media hub, and has a provision for occasional special print editions. Thanks to our vast network of sources and dedicated team of professional journalists and contributors spread across Nigeria and overseas, NEWS EXPRESS has become synonymous with newsbreaks and exclusive stories from around the world.