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A key PDP chieftain who ran against Senate President Akpabio in 2023 defects to the APC, signaling a major shift in Akwa Ibom politics and the collapse of the local opposition.

The political sands in Nigeria’s oil-rich Akwa Ibom State have shifted dramatically as the PDP chieftain who bitterly contested the Senate seat against Godswill Akpabio in 2023 has defected to the ruling APC.
In a move that consolidates Senate President Akpabio’s grip on the South-South region, the defection of his former arch-rival (alongside the state Governor Umo Eno) marks the effective collapse of the opposition in the state. The event in Uyo was a spectacle of realignment, with the defectors declaring that "you cannot fight the center forever."
Senate President Akpabio, once the target of the defector’s fiercest campaign attacks, welcomed him with open arms. "Today, politicians across the length and breadth of Akwa Ibom are falling over themselves to join the same party they demonized," Akpabio’s aide, Anietie Ekong, remarked. The narrative has shifted from rivalry to a "unity government" aimed at connecting the state to the federal grid.
The lure of federal power has proven irresistible. With Akpabio sitting as the Number 3 citizen in Nigeria, the political gravity in Akwa Ibom has pulled everything towards the APC.The 2023 rivalry is buried, replaced by a convenient alliance of former foes united by the pursuit of power.
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