It appeared like a scene from a movie when in September 2015, operatives of the Department of State Services stormed the Akwa Ibom State Government House reportedly confiscating arms and millions of dollars.
Although Senator Godswill Akpabio had left government three months earlier, his successor, Udom Emmanuel, had yet to move into the Government House fuelling rumours that Akpabio was still living there.
Characteristically, the Peoples Democratic Party in a statement by its then acting Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, issued a statement condemning the raid on the Government House, describing it as an attack on democracy.
Weeks later, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission began investigating Akpabio who is the Senate Minority Leader, and Senator Bassey Akpan, who was Commissioner for Finance when Akpabio was governor.
The EFCC wrote letters to Zenith Bank, Keystone Bank, First City Monument Bank, Skye Bank, and the United Bank for Africa demanding information on the state’s accounts amid allegations that Akpabio had stolen over N100bn from the coffers of the oil-rich state.
The anti-graft agency also extended its investigation to the accountant-general, the auditor-general, the Speaker and the clerk of the House of Assembly.
Describing it as a witch-hunt, the Akwa Ibom State Government refused to cooperate with the EFCC and even dragged the commission to court and obtained an interim injunction, restraining the EFCC and other Federal Government agencies from probing the finances of the Akwa Ibom State Government but this was temporary as the judge lifted the injunction months later paving the way for full investigations.
The matter was taken to the Appeal Court where it has remained for over a year.
While all the action happened, Akpabio remained uncharacteristically silent for several months even though he is supposed to be the voice of the opposition in the nation’s highest lawmaking body.
However, there had been reports that the strongman of Akwa Ibom politics was having problems with his successor, a greenhorn from the private sector, whom Akpabio had imposed on the Peoples Democratic Party to the chagrin of 22 candidates during the run-up to the 2015 general election.
Also, Akpabio’s insistence that Emmanuel, a seasoned accountant from the Ibibio tribe, be his successors, upset the political calculation of the state because it was expected that the Oron tribe, which had never produced a governor, would produce the governor in 2015.
Akpabio was, however, able to prove to all naysayers that he was the most influential politician in Akwa Ibom as virtually all executive and legislative seats in the 2015 elections were won by his party, the PDP.
Forward to 2018, it was believed that the Akwa Ibom ‘crowd-puller’, who once openly gave N1m each to the six chairmen of the PDP from the South-South geopolitical zone to “buy Mr Biggs”, would deliver the over 1.8 million votes in his state to the party.
With the defection of Senate President Bukola Saraki, 12 other senators and three governors amongst others from the All Progressives Congress (all from northern Nigeria) to the PDP, in the last two weeks, it was expected that the South-South and the South-East which are strongholds of the PDP, would remain intact as the opposition party plans to wrest power from the APC which has its strongest base in the North.
While the PDP engaged in merrymaking, the APC sneaked into its camp like a thief in the night, snatching its prized possession.
Photos depicting Akpabio bowing in submission to President Muhammadu Buhari in faraway London as well as subsequent photos of the senator with the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu sent confusion into the camp of the PDP.
The opposition party has alleged that Akpabio is being blackmailed by the ruling party because of his case at the EFCC but photos of Akpabio grinning from ear to ear while standing next to the President make this story hard to sell.
Should Akpabio defect on Wednesday as speculated, he will be expected to move with a large number of supporters and politicians in the state who are loyal to him. His presence in the APC will also give the party a more nationalistic look having been tagged a northern/South-West party for the last three years.
Akpabio is also said to be eyeing the seat of the Senate President and would be expected to be part of the moves to impeach Saraki when the Senate resumes.
And while the senator, who is still battling with the EFCC continues to claim not to be a thief, it remains to be seen whether or not his defection will eventually give him a soft landing.
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