Senate President Godswill Akpabio, on Wednesday, claimed that Nigeria’s electoral process recorded tremendous improvement after the Peoples Democratic Party left the Aso Rock Presidential Villa.
Akpabio, who was elected governor twice on the platform of the PDP and first got into the Senate under the banner of the opposition party, said this during the second reading of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill at plenary, on Wednesday.
He said, “I’m sure that even myself and Senator Abaribe, who have been around for almost two and a half decades in these electoral matters, I know you don’t care about political party, you win elections in any party.
“You have a lot of experience, but you will agree with me that since PDP left, the elections have improved tremendously in this country.
“I recall, I’ve been close to most of the presidents since 1999, and I recall in 2007, when I won as a governor, our then president, may his soul rest in peace, President Yar’Adua, had to come out publicly to say that the election that brought him as president was totally flawed. He said it was full of inconsistencies and rigging. Since then, we have plugged the holes.”
The Senate President added that although Nigerians still experience setback, the system had improved.
He said, “Imagine this last election, we had to go up to the Supreme Court arguing as to whether winning the Federal Capital Territory was the only reason why you should become president.
“People were saying, No, win FCT and then you have won the presidency. So, you can lose in 36 states of the federation, but once you win FCT, you have become president. They wasted time, had panels upon panels on television, and at the end of the day, we got to the Supreme Court and back.
“Common sense could have told us that that was not the intent of the Electoral Act.”
Akpabio defected to the ruling party after the PDP lost power in 2015. He had contested the 2019 election under the All Progressives Congress, but lost.
But the late President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him a minister.
