We’ve Suspended Akpabio Due To Inactivity, Says Presidential Support Committee
By Gbenga Omokhunu and Grace Obike, Abuja
The Presidential Support Committee (PSC) on Saturday suspended its National Coordinator and Minister for Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio, for alleged inactivity and poor leadership.
PSC took the decision during its national general meeting and merit award ceremony held in Abuja.
According to a statement jointly signed by the PSC Founder and National Facilitator, Hon. Gideon Sammani and the organization’s Director of Media, Dr. Kailani Muhammad, the suspension order was carried out to ensure the survival and the revitalization of the PSC.
Muhammad, who read the statement during the meeting, said: “While PSC has supported the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the re-election of President Muhammad Buhari in the 2019 election, regrettably it is gradually drifting due to failed leadership of the National Coordinator.
“We are worried that in an attempt to bring back PSC to glory, whose members have committed themselves to the successful reelection of the President in 2019, the National Coordinator, whose appointment as Minister was through the platform, has abandoned the organisation and its members.
“But we cannot hold back and watch PSC that was positively established to sink as a result of inactivity. Those who worked for APC and the President must be carried along.
“APC Members are very experienced people. They have worked tirelessly to refocus the organisation and to enable it achieve its objectives, but the National Coordinator became a cog in the wheel of its progress.
“PSC leadership and its members are open to democratic ethos of dialogue, compromise and consensus, but poor leadership has retarded the organisation from moving forward.”
Muhammad further said: “At the close of last year, a national conference with the theme: Fairness, Equity and Justice: Panacea for Peace, Unity and Development was mooted. But to the chagrin of every member, the National Coordinator had skillfully turned down the idea in the pretext of shifting the time for the conference to January, 2021, which is yet to see the light of the day.
“Senator Akpabio as National Coordinator was appointed as Minister for Niger Delta through the PSC platform, but the organization is worst hit by his inactions.”
Worried by the fate of PSC, Muhammad said: “No one is in doubt that PSC was and is still interested in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The platform has experienced and dedicated members but the organisation has been stymied from further progress midway into the administration they worked to ensure its emergence.
“Even to offer advice, defend government policy and constructively criticise it where necessary has remained a huge challenge, due to failed leadership.
“At a time, an Ad-hoc Committee was set up under Ambassador Lawal Munir to rejig the organisation, but regrettably, the National Coordinator is yet to act on the committee’s submission.”
– The Nation
