A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bode George, has criticised the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, for describing the major opposition party in the country as defunct.
News360 Info reports that Akpabio, while addressing stakeholders at the All Progressives Congress (APC) South-South meeting in Benin City, Edo State, on Saturday, mocked the PDP and the African Democratic Congress-led coalition, dismissing both as inconsequential ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He said, “I saw my brother, the former governor Okowa, and you need to know that even though he was the vice presidential candidate in the defunct PDP, he has seen the light.
“I don’t care the name of the political party that they want to bring. Whether you call it Adamu United, Adama, Ada-Obi, or even our former airline, ADC — whatever name you want to call it — I hope you are watching and listening. The South-South is speaking: we are now coming with Bola Tinubu United. On Asiwaju we stand, on APC we stand.”
However, Bode George, in an interview with Punch, reminded Akpabio that the PDP gave him his breakthrough in politics, stressing that his remarks were both ungrateful and disrespectful to the party that made him governor and elevated him politically.
George emphasised that history would not forget the role PDP played in shaping the political careers of many, including Akpabio and the former governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa.
He added, “I wish him all the best in his life. But who made him? He is now using his left hand to point at his father’s house. Who gave him that platform? Who made him governor in Akwa Ibom State? It is the PDP. The same party gave him full support. He should think back before making such statements.
“You think Nigerians don’t know why Okowa had to run for cover? Go back and listen to the statement made by Oshiomhole.”
Akpabio was a two-term governor under the PDP, a former chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, and won a seat in the Senate in 2015 on the party’s platform.
In 2018, he defected to the APC after resigning as the Senate Minority Leader, a position he held under the PDP.
