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By Nwakaego Alajemba
Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio is among the names on the new list of ministerial nominees being compiled by the Abba Kyari Committee, and he is being touted as the man to lead the communications ministry, IT Edge News can confirmed.
News sources at the weekend revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari has ignited the process for his ministerial team to kick off his second term from May 29, 2019.
Akpabio is on the list with Senator Smart Adeyemi who lost his senatorial bid for Kogi West constituency of Kogi State; Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo state who lost a second bid to return to the Senate for Oyo Central constituency of Oyo State; and Senator George Akume who lost out in the Benue North-West senatorial district Benue State.
According to presidential sources, the president is expected to send these names and those to be retained from the old cabinet to the 9th Assembly immediately it is inaugurated in June.
Akpabio, lawyer and politician, and former senate minority leader, jumped ship last year August to join the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Akpabio worked with the now moribund EMIS Telecoms Limited, a wireless telecommunications company in Lagos where he rose to the position of the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the company. He was also active in the early days of Nigeria’s liberalized telecom sector as the National Publicity Secretary of the Association of Telecommunication Companies in Nigeria, (ATCON).
Akpabio left EMIS in 2002 to begin his political career having been appointed as Commissioner for Petroleum and Natural Resources by the then Governor Obong Victor Attah in Akwa Ibom State.
Regarded as highly influential in his Akwa Ibom State, Akpabio was expected to deliver Akwa Ibom for APC but he failed and was also unsuccessful to retain his Akwa Ibom north-west senatorial seat. But he has sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over his loss.
