Niger APC Chieftain Vatsa asks Akpabio to resign as Senate president and apologize to protesting youths.
Former commissioner for Information Culture and Tourism and Chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Niger state, Hon Jonathan Vatsa has called on the Senate president Godswill Akpabio to immediately resign his position as Senate president and equally tender an apology to the protesting youth over his utterances on the ongoing nationwide Endbadgovernance protests.
Vatsa said the Senate president has not only embarrassed the All Progressive Congress (APC) where he has “come to continue eating” after 16 years of eating in the opposition People Democratic party (PDP), his Constituency and the red chamber but the entire Nigerians with his utterances.
The former publicity secretary of the party in Niger state in a statement in Minna on Tuesday titled “time for Akpabio to go is now” while reacting to a comment credited to the Senate president, said it is unfortunate that while eminent and distinguished Nigerians are busy appealing to the protesting Nigerian youths to give peace a chance and embrace dialogue with the government over the current economic hardship in the country, “Akpabio decided to go the comedian way”.
It could be recalled that Akpabio, in the building up the EndBadGovernance protest last week, said those who wanted to protest could do so while he and other persons loyal to president Bola Tinubu will continue eating from his administration.
“while you protest, we shall be eating,” Akpabio was quoted to have said. An utterances Vatsa described as “very callous and regrettable, coming from the number three citizen of the country”.
Vatsa said in an ideal situation and in a decent society, Akpabio shouldn’t have been made the senate president in an APC control government, stressing that “these were the same group of people that we accused of looting this country for 16 years.
“It is a huge error and a disservice to this country to turn round and made someone like Akpabio a Senate president in APC government. That is why this government can never get it right.
“APC as a party has been hijacked by those that Nigerians were fed up with and decided to embrace”Change” in 2015. They have being eating and they want to continue eating like Akpabio made Nigerians to believe”.
According to Vatsa, “I said it before and I will repeat it again that it is sad that we are giving red carpet reception to those we initially accused of looting this country with reckless abandoned, so how can we get it right.
“The same eating Akpabio ate for 16 years under PDP government, he still wants to continue eating under APC government. This is a tragedy of a nation”.
Aside this, Vatsa said that many criteria disqualified Akpabio from holding the position of the Senate president under APC controlled government, stressing that “Akpabio is from a state controlled by opposition party and therefore shouldn’t have been allowed to occupy the seat of the Senate president”.
He expressed regrets that the party leadership could not find a competent person to be Senate president despite the caliber of intellectuals in the south east and south south, stressing that “recently the same Akpabio publicly insulted a married woman on the floor of the Senate by comparing her with night club girls, only for him to turned around and began to tender a belated apology.
“The sins of Akpabio so far as a Senate president is worst than that of Ali Ndume which earned him suspension. I therefore called on the Senate president to immediately resign his position as the Senate president in other to restore the dignity of our great party.
“This party must began to redeem its image and build confidence in Nigerians before 2027. This must start from Akpabio resignation to let Nigerians know that we are serious as a party”, he added.
