Loading banners
NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s leading online newspaper. Published by Africa’s international award-winning journalist, Mr. Isaac Umunna, NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s first truly professional online daily newspaper. It is published from Lagos, Nigeria’s economic and media hub, and has a provision for occasional special print editions. Thanks to our vast network of sources and dedicated team of professional journalists and contributors spread across Nigeria and overseas, NEWS EXPRESS has become synonymous with newsbreaks and exclusive stories from around the world.
The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Chief Godswill Akpabio, has described the current crisis rocking the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as a storm in a tea cup which would soon be resolved. He assured that the party would not break up during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Chief Akpabio who is also the Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum, stated this in his remarks at the party’s post-convention dinner at the Presidential Villa in Abuja over the weekend.
Affirming the support and loyalty of his fellow PDP governors to the President and the party said the party, Akpabio said the PDP would not shut its door against anyone but would not stop anyone who wished to defect to another party.
Hear him: “We just want to inform you that there is no faction in the PDP. What you are witnessing today is just a storm inside the tea cup and I know that you don’t want to push the tea cup instead you want to pull the tea cup and that is why you are embarking on the process of reconciliation.
“We want to assure you that there is no shaking as far as the PDP is concerned. If you look at the hall here you will see that there are 17 PDP governors. How many are we? We are 23, so if you have four or five PDP governors who are not here that does not mean that their supporters are behind them.
“If there is anybody who wishes to go to any political party he is free to do so. I think this is the only political party that admits people who have gone and come back. We took a statistics and we found out that sometimes it is good you step out there, gain experience, come back and become a national chairman of the party.
“Not all the PDP governors are aggrieved, and if there is anybody that is aggrieved, the President has set up a robust committee to ensure reconciliation. We are all solidly behind you and behind the party and very interested in receiving our colleagues back.”
Chief Akpabio listed the achievements of the Jonathan administration to include increased oil production which has boosted revenue of the states and the disappearance of queues at petrol stations. He called on Nigerians to support the transformation agenda of the President.
“Nigeria has faced challenges in the past, Nigeria never broke up. Nigeria will not break up under President Jonathan; the PDP will not break up under his administration. When you talk about Nigeria, you talk about PDP and PDP is Nigeria. That is why I am saying Nigeria will not break up,” the Akwa Ibom State Governor said.
