2015: “I Will Remove Mua’zu”-Akpabio Boasts

Ahead of the 2015 elections, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Chief Godswill Akpabio may be heading for a showdown with the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Adamu Mua’zu.

Sources very close to Governor Akpabio confided in our reporter that the Governor was very frustrated by Mua’zu’s refusal to buy into Akpabio’s self-succession plan of imposing the current Secretary to the Government of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel on the people. 

The source continued that since Mua’zu was sworn in as National Chairman of the PDP, Akpabio has made spirited moves and overtures to the former Bauchi State Governor with a view to securing Mua’zu’s backing for his preferred candidate in the 2015 governorship election.

But on each occasion, Akpabio is said to have met a brick wall with Mua’zu's insistence that PDP primaries shall be open and that whoever will fly the Party’s flag must go to the people.

This according to the source is unsettling Governor Akpabio who is more than desperate to have his way hence his boast to remove Mua’zu as the National Chairman of the Party. The source who craved anonymity said that Akpabio was very bitter with the National Chairman for daring to rebuff him.

Quoting Governor Akpabio, “as far as I am the Chairman, PDP Governors Forum, Member, Board of Trustees, Member, National Working Committee, Member, National Caucus, Chairman, Finance Committee of the Party, I will remove Mua’zu the same way I removed the President’s Chief of Staff, the same way I removed Bamanga Tukur and the same way I removed Gulak”, the source said.  

Speaking further, the source said that Mua’zu has repeatedly told Governor Akpabio that the PDP under his leadership is determined to deepen and entrench internal democracy within the Party.   

It would be recalled that during the South-East Presidential Rally of the Peoples Democratic Party in Enugu recently, the Governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime had told the President and PDP stalwarts that the crisis rocking the party was as a result of robbing Peter to pay Paul disposition of the Party during primaries.

To ensure that PDP retains its lost glory, President Goodluck Jonathan had told the Enugu gathering that PDP is the only Party that will not give automatic tickets. The President went further to restate the Party’s position that only candidates that are popular with the people will fly the Party’s flag.

In a telephone discussion with our reporter, an Abuja based top notch of the Party wondered why Akpabio was bent on scuttling the efforts of the national leadership of the Party towards rebuilding and repositioning the Party. He decried Akpabio’s unrestrained quest for power and warned the President to be mindful of Akpabio.

Another prominent stakeholder of the Party who spoke on condition of confidentiality expressed worry over Akpabios’s ambition describing it as “deeply inordinate and satanic”. According to him, Akpabio should not be afraid of facing the Akwa Ibom electorates, afterall he is their uncommon transformer. Describing Akpabio’s desperation as quite shocking, he said, “it is amazing that after spending billions of Akwa Ibom’s money to buy PDP titles of self-glorification, after spending billions on the charade called Town Hall Meetings to cajole Nigeria with his ambition, after bringing down perceived opponents of his evil agenda, with intimidations and assassinations, Akpabio should know that the people’s resolve to resist him is the voice of God.”