A leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bode George, has slammed the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, for describing PDP as a defunct party.

He reminded Akpabio that the same PDP gave him his political breakthrough.

Akpabio, while addressing stakeholders at the All Progressives Congress South-South meeting in Benin City, Edo State on Saturday, took a swipe at the PDP and the emerging African Democratic Congress-led coalition, dismissing both as inconsequential ahead of the 2027 general elections.

 “I saw my brother, the former governor Okowa, and you need to know that even though he was the vice presidential candidate in the defunct PDP, he has seen the light.”

 “I don’t care the name of the political party that they want to bring. Whether you call it Adamu United, Adama, Ada-Obi, or even our former airline, ADC — whatever name you want to call it — I hope you are watching and listening. The South-South is speaking: we are now coming with Bola Tinubu United. On Asiwaju we stand, on APC we stand.”

 Reacting to the comments in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, George said Akpabio’s remarks were both ungrateful and disrespectful to the party that elevated him politically.

“I wish him all the best in his life. But who made him? He is now using his left hand to point at his father’s house. Who gave him that platform? Who made him governor in Akwa Ibom State? It is the PDP. The same party gave him full support. He should think back before making such statements,” George said.

The PDP chieftain noted that history would not forget the role PDP played in shaping the political careers of many, including Akpabio and Delta State’s former governor, Ifeanyi Okowa.

 “You think Nigerians don’t know why Okowa had to run for cover? Go back and listen to the statement made by Oshiomhole,” he added.

 Akpabio was a two-term governor under the PDP, a former chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, and won a seat into the Senate in 2015 on the party’s platform.

In 2018, he defected to the APC after resigning as the Senate Minority Leader — a position he held under the PDP.

Also reacting, the spokesperson for the ADC, Bolaji Abdullahi, dismissed Akpabio’s mockery of the opposition coalition, stating that the ruling party was clearly rattled.

 “What do they know how to do other than mock? We have more serious things to do than respond to such empty talk.’’

“When we started, they said the coalition was dead on arrival. But now, they are jittery. That’s why they are talking like this. For us, we remain focused because we know we will defeat them,” he added.