Akpabio Speaks On His Election Into IPU Executive Committee

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has said he was elected into the Executive Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) General Assembly due to the influence of former Côte d’Ivoire President, Alassane Ouattara.

The senate president disclosed this on Thursday when he spoke at the colloquium organised to commemorate his 61st birthday in Abuja.

Akpabio said he forced the Speaker of Côte d’Ivoire to withdraw from the race as representative of African countries in the executive committee member of the global parliamentary union.

The Senate President explained that he “threatened” the Côte d’Ivoire speaker with “impeachment” if he insisted on contesting against him.

He said: “Once I signified my interest to be an executive committee member, they said let’s go for an election. I knew it was a trap because the Francophone country would immediately vote. How can you campaign with someone who does not understand your language, are you going to use sign language?

“So, I said who is your candidate, they brought the speaker of Côte d’Ivoire. I said as a speaker, I don’t know what your ambition in future is but if you come out of this position if you contest against me, the president of your country will remove you when you get back to your country and he said why,. I showed him the picture of the president wearing my uniform when I commissioned the International Stadium at Uyo, which is named Godswill Akpabio International Stadium.

“He was there on the authority of ECOWAS, the then president of ECOWAS was the President of Ghana. So, I said look at him here. I sent him to Coted’voire to mention me. I said I needed just a phone call to let him know that your speaker was insulting me. So, see me first and then you will find out whether you will need to contest against me for this position.”

Akpabio said the speaker of Côte d’Ivoire withdrew from the race and endorsed him to represent the African continent at the global executive committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union due to the “threatening”.

He added, “The next day he came to me with the speaker of Ghana and said to me that he actually called the president and that the president said that man is a good performer so I have withdrawn.

“I told him not to tell others that he has withdrawn because they will sponsor another person against me. When we got to IPU, it was very shocking when they said Godswill Akpabio of Nigeria and they said well positioned.

“The Deputy Speaker Ben Kalu jumped up and said game changer, I said there was no game changer, who gave me the idea. That is how Nigeria sneaked in after 59 years.”