National Vice Chairman of the Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Godswill Akpabio, on Friday received the leadership of 250 Presidential Support Groups based in Akwa Ibom State, with a charge on them to ensure the victory for the party at all levels in the forthcoming general elections in the state.

A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Jackson Udom, quoted the former Senate Minority Leader while receiving the groups in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area of the state as saying: “I am highly elated with these groups. I am even more elated that you have all resolved to work for the success of our Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and all other candidates of the party from your different polling units and wards.

“These groups to me, are the real deal. I see you people as those who are real and committed. You didn’t force me to be here. I only came to see. I have seen and I am satisfied.”

Speaking further in the statement Akpabio said: “I have heard of several other groups being set up within the party by other party leaders. I am not against it, so long as they are being set up in support of the party and our Presidential candidate. I will personally support and attend their meetings anytime I am around in the state.

“What I will not support is a situation where some leaders of the party in the state would be shouting Asiwaju in the day and PDP (Atiku) in the night. I am very much aware of a particular person in our party, who has publicly endorsed the governorship candidate of the PDP and its Senatorial candidate, but would rush down to Uyo to say I am the chairman of the rally for Tinubu. Which Tinubu are you talking about?”

Describing the groups as genuine party loyalists and supporters, the former governor of Akwa Ibom State said he was encouraged by the sincerity in their actions and attitudes to the success of the party, stressing: “I am very encouraged. I want to personally thank all of you for this show of love for the party. These are the real grassroots politicians and anybody who will not embrace these groups is not a politician. No matter how I identify with the Centre, if I am not at home with people like you, I am not a politician. This is grassroots politicking."

According to the former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, "now that I have you, I will want you as a group, to formally write and invite our Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed, through me, that we are ready to receive him and his entourage in a Town Hall setting before our rally. We want him to know that through you people, the APC has penetrated Akwa Ibom State to the grassroots and without this kind of evidence one would not know what is happening in the party.”

“Gone are the days when some leaders would rush to Abuja to claim that the party's success was done by them, whereas it is you people that did it. They are already positioning themselves in Abuja. I call them Abuja politicians.

“You see somebody who is a Deputy Director in the Campaign Office, taking its governorship candidate to court. He has seven cases in court against Akan Udofia. He is destabilising the APC in Akwa Ibom State for the ultimate benefit of the PDP. He has already positioned himself in Abuja because he knows one or two persons in other parties, so that if this one fails (God forbids), he will rush back to PDP and say I did it. These are the kind of people we are expected to work with,” the statement concluded.

Update news