This will be Senator Akpabio's second stint at the Senate after emerging winner of the legislative election in Akwa Ibom State the same year he handed over administrative affairs as governor of the state under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Akpabio polled 422,009 of the 439,449 to defeat Chief Inibehe Okorie of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who recorded 15,152 votes to be declared elected by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He became the Senate Minority leader of the 8th National Assembly after being nominated by the PDP caucus.
However, things got soar between Akpabio and the PDP after he announced his defection from the party in August 2018 and joined the APC to kick off his campaign for a second stint in the Senate.
Akpabio's return to the Red Chambers was short-lived, as President Muhammadu Buhari in July 2019 enlisted him as one of his ministerial nominees.
He was Minister of the Niger Delta for the entirety of President Buhari's final years in office but resigned to contest for the Presidency and later withdrew his ambition for the current President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
