Former Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, on Monday reacted to the insinuation that his seat in the Senate would be declared vacant owing to his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Party, APC.
He said such a declaration could only be realized if the seats of other senators who defected from the APC, to PDP, were declared vacant.
The seat would include that of the Senate President Bukola Saraki.
It would be recalled that Saraki and no fewer than 14 other senators dumped the APC for the PDP recently.
The defection has since led to the call for Saraki to vacate his post as the President of the Senate since he no longer belonged to the party upon which platform he was elected.
In Akpabio’s reaction to the suggestion that his seat would be declared vacant, he said if the basis for that was that there was no division in PDP to warrant his defection, then, Saraki and other senators were guilty of the same offence.
He said it should be noted too that there was no division in the APC to warrant the defection of Saraki and others.
He said the Reformed All Progressives Congress, R-APC, was not a faction of the APC as it had since been consumed by the Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP.
CUPP was set up to present a single presidential candidate to contest against President Muhammadu Buhari during the 2019 election.
READ ALSO: Ogun guber: Sagamu agog as 27 communities receive Tella
Said Akpabio: “Any defection from APC to PDP, we will like to declare those seats vacant.
“As you are looking at me, do I look perturbed? I have not heard the report.
“I think that is a rumour because at the moment, there is 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.
“It has since been consumed in what they call Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP).”
He promised to address the press on key issues when the National Assembly reconvenes.
“I believe that when the National Assembly resumes, you will hear from me directly. So, exercise patience,’’ he said.