Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno, has likened himself to a political forerunner, saying he defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress ahead of many of his colleagues who have since followed the same path.
Eno spoke in an interview with TVC on Friday, where he addressed criticism that trailed his early exit from the PDP and explained the thinking behind his defection.
The governor said his decision was born out of practical necessity, insisting there was nothing wrong with aligning with a party in a position to deliver funding for the state.
“You can’t be hungry all the time. Why don’t you reject it? The man has done well. Funds are coming. Allocations are coming. And we’re able to have funds to get to work for our people. And so I had to. It was a decision well thought out,” he said.
Eno said the presence of Senate President Godswill Akpabio, a fellow Akwa Ibom indigene, in the APC also shaped his decision, as remaining in a different party could have created a damaging contest for political control of the state.
“The Senate president is from Akwa Ibom. I don’t see how we would have maintained the peace trajectory we are talking about with me in another party and the Senate president in another party. The soul of the state is what everybody will be fighting for,” he said.
On his exit from the PDP itself, the governor said he had foreseen that the party would not support his re-election bid, a position many dismissed as premature at the time.
