The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has stirred reactions on social media after making remarks that appeared to mock the internal turmoil within opposition parties during plenary.
Akpabio made the comments while reading an official defection letter from former Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, a former Governor of Sokoto State and current senator, confirming his decision to join the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The letter also indicated a number of resignations from the Labour Party (LP) and other members of the minority caucus.
As he read, Akpabio paused, visibly amused by the state of the opposition, and made light of their internal struggles, saying, “Oh, PDP is gone!”
He added, “Even the Labour Party is dead. I’ve read about three different political parties now,” as he recounted further defections from the LP.
Akpabio seized the opportunity to dismiss claims that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, was behind the opposition’s troubles.
He attributed the turmoil to leadership failures within the parties themselves.
“You cannot accuse the ruling party of tampering with their leadership because here you have APGA, you have Labour, you have MVP, and all those things. So all of them have a problem.
They’ve not been able to put their parties together. So, APC cannot be blamed for this. They are all out to ensure that we have a minority status in this chamber, and I am very proud of them,” Akpabio said.