Akpeki scorns Okowa’s job creation hunt, says PDP is party of blackmailers

Former Chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) now turned Chieftain of All Progressive Congress (APC) Chief Paulinus Akpeki has sneered at the job creation effort of the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa administration, even as he described PDP as a party of blackmailers and calumny campaigners.

Chief Akpeki

Fielding questions from journalists recently in Asaba he scorned the job creation activities of the governor, challenging the administration to tell the people how much it has so far expended on its job creation quest. He said: “We talk of job creation; you are bringing 600,000 to Songhai. Isn’t it? That is job creation. We will discuss it at the appropriate time. Let them tell us what they have spent so far on job creation. They have spent two hundred and something billion. Let them tell us how it came about.”

Akpeki continued: “Edevbie was commissioner for finance from 1999 – 2003. He was in charge of the funds of Delta state. From 2007 to 2015, the accountant general of this state is the accountant general from 1999 up till today. Let them publish the financial transactions of Delta State from 1999 – 2003, and publish from 2007 – 2015, and publish from May 2015 to now. Let them tell us the financial standing of this state. We shall come to that. We are ready in APC.”

Asked why he dumped the PDP for APC, Akpeki said he did it as a choice given the prevailing situation on ground, adding that he has no regret leaving the PDP. He explained: “In the life of a man, he will have to sum up courage to take certain decisions. Like I said the other time, I don’t want to live up to how many years, and I will come back and tell people that I regret I didn’t take this decision. My elderstates man that I respect and love, and I will continue to love, Dr. Osaigbovo Ogbemudia at the age of 83 was asked a question in all that you have done in PDP, do you have any regret, and what was it? His being able not to sum up courage to quit PDP at a time he was supposed to quit. He said he saw it coming but he could not sum up the courage to do it.”

Akpeki said he had always seen it coming, and has always advised his colleagues, and told them that even if nobody will do it, that he will sum up courage to do it. “But what I know I have done now, I am trying to pull all of you in Delta out of slavery. I don’t want to live and say I regret, and that I regretted not taking that decision that time. I don’t regret leaving PDP,” he said.

He decried what he described as Delta State being turned into a family estate where the estate is shared to family members and friends. “But Delta state is not a personal family estate. It is the estate of every stake holder,” Akpeki said.

He challenged the PDP leadership in the state to a television debate, describing them as people who did not know how the party managed in the state, pointing out that as the Director general of the PDP campaign Council from December 2010 to December 2014. “I financed it with my money, running the place under Uduaghan, when people like Uzor, Enuesoke and others did not know how we managed the place. Today, few persons who did not know how we managed PDP now claim they own PDP because they can blackmail; because they can sit down and mount campaign of calumny. I will not be party to that,” Akpeki declared.

He said he had to take the decision he took because his advice fell on deaf ears. “When you advise and your advice falls on deaf ears, you go away. He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day. But I am poised to take over power from PDP in this state come 2019. I am not thinking of tribunal. It is wrong if anybody is thinking of tribunal, re-run. It is not my cup of tea. I am not thinking of that. I am thinking ahead of 2019, when the time comes, Deltans will determine and decide whether we should vote for PDP or vote for APC. At that time people like you (journalists) will sit down and do the analysis, and take a decision then,” Akpeki said.

Answering another question, he declared: “PDP is already a dead party. When the chips are down, I challenge Uzor to a television debate. I challenge the leadership of PDP now to a television debate. I challenge Enuesoke and others to a television debate. Let us sit down, we are ll friends. Let them analyse their own and I will analyse my own. It is not about Okowa. Okowa is a good man, but Okowa is saddled with a set of people that don’t allow the man to see beyond his nose.

“And that was what happened to Jonathan. And that was why Jonathan presided over his own liquidation. I will not want that to happen to Okowa as my friend. Okowa is an experienced administrator, an experienced politician, but as a governor he might not be able to move from this house to speak to the outside world.

“Today, Okowa does not know what is happening outside. It is what the charlatans tell him that he believes. I challenge Uzor to a television dabate. I challenge them in PDP to television dabate. So that we analyse PDP as a party. PDP has no programme. PDP has no political ideology. Let them come and let’s debate it. Invite me to a conference. Let them be seated, let Uzor be seated and I sit so that we can debate it,” Akpeki stated.

Asked to advise other founding members of PDP still there, Akpeki said: “My advice to them now is that let not what happened to Jonathan happen to them. Let them sit back and x-ray what is in PDP now. It might send a very strong signal of what to do. So that the good people in APC and the good people in PDP will meet and decide what happens to Delta state. It is not about Akpeki, it’s not about Okowa, it’s not about anybody. It is about Delta state.”