I didn’t join APC to avoid EFCC investigation, says Akpabio

Former Minority Leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio has debunked the insinuation that he defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to avoid corruption allegations against him.

Leo Ekpenyong, a lawyer and activist, had petitioned the anti-graft agency, accusing Akpabio of “devising a means of enriching himself at the expense of the state” while in office.

Recall that the acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, had on Wednesday said the senator is still under investigation, stressing that politicians defecting from one party to another would not be shielded from prosecution by the anti-graft agency.

The EFCC chairman said it had become fashionable for anyone being investigated for corruption by the commission to scream political persecution.

He added that the fact that a politician “jumps from one party to another will not stop EFCC investigation; we don’t stop investigation until it is concluded.”

Reacting, Akpabio said the EFCC investigated and found nothing on him.

“Some people are saying I moved to APC because a gun was pointed on my head. A young man wrote a petition against me and the petition was filled with lies… I have never been charged to court… The EFCC did not find anything on me,” he had said at a rally in the Ikot Ekpene area of the state.

The senator’s battle with the anti-graft agency began on October 16, 2015 when he was first invited for questioning over an alleged N108 billion fraud.

Akpabio, who left office as governor of Akwa Ibom state in 2015, had been grilled on several occasions by the EFCC over allegations of fraud.

There have been allegations that some politicians joined the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to prevent being prosecuted by the commission.