Senate President Godswill Akpabio faces accusations of hypocrisy as a 2016 statement resurfaces, demanding senators forfeit seats upon defection, while he now presides over a wave of opposition defections to the ruling APC without declaring seats vacant

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]enate President Godswill Akpabio is facing intense scrutiny and accusations of double standards as a 2016 statement attributed to him, advocating for the forfeiture of seats by defecting senators, has resurfaced online.

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This re-emergence comes amidst a wave of high-profile defections from opposition parties, particularly the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) under his leadership.

The statement in question dates back to November 2016, when Akpabio was a prominent figure in the then-opposition PDP.

In a Facebook post from that time, he emphatically declared: “As lawmakers, Senators must not encourage political rascality.

That is why PDP Senators today staged a walkout to protest the purported defection of Senator Yele Omogunwa, who was elected on the platform of the PDP but claimed he wants to defect to the APC to support the Governor-elect of his state.

The constitution is clear on this: if a Senator defects to another political party, he loses his seat.”

Fast forward nearly a decade, Akpabio, now the Senate President and a leading member of the APC, is being criticised for allegedly shielding senators who are abandoning their original parties to join the ruling fold.

The Nigerian Senate has recently witnessed significant shifts in its composition.

We cannot stand by and watch as the sanctity of our democratic institutions is eroded by political expediency. If the Senate President once believed in protecting party mandates, he must now prove it by his actions.

On May 9, 2025, all three serving PDP senators from Kebbi State – Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central), Yahaya Abdullahi (Kebbi North), and Garba Maidoki (Kebbi South) – formally announced their defection to the APC following a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

This followed a similar move in February by Senator Ned Nwoko, representing Delta North, who also formally joined the APC.

Despite these clear instances of defection, Senate President Akpabio has conspicuously refrained from calling for any of the defecting senators’ seats to be declared vacant, a stance directly contradictory to his earlier pronouncement.

This perceived inaction has triggered widespread condemnation and accusations of hypocrisy from various quarters.

In a move echoing Akpabio’s own protest in 2016, PDP senators recently staged a walkout from plenary, demanding that the Senate leadership uphold constitutional provisions regarding defection.

Speaking on behalf of the protesting lawmakers, Senator Abba Moro (Benue South) stated, “We cannot stand by and watch as the sanctity of our democratic institutions is eroded by political expediency.

If the Senate President once believed in protecting party mandates, he must now prove it by his actions.”

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The resurfaced Facebook post has ignited a fiery debate across Nigerian social media and traditional media outlets, with many citizens openly questioning Akpabio’s consistency and commitment to constitutional principles.