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Senate 2023: Please, don’t disgrace me the second time- Akpabio begs Chief Etiebet, Abak-5

… You’re chasing shadows, it’s Abak federal Constituency or nothing – Ex Petroleum Minister insist

With the reality of a second Senatorial electoral defeat in less than four years staring him in the face, former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, and APC Senatorial candidate for Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District, Senator Godswill Akpabio is pleading with APC Chieftain, former Minister of Petroleum and elder statesman, Chief Don Etiebet, not to abandon him to his fate to avoid another shameful electoral loss and the APC.

This is coming on the heels of Chief Etiebet’s position that the entire indigenes of Abak-5 within the Senatorial District will rather vote for any candidate from Abak federal Constituency than Senator Akpabio, whose federal Constituency, Ikot Ekpene, has produced five senators in the last 63 years, leaving Abak as the only federal Constituency that has never produced a Senator since Nigeria’s independence in 1960.

In a statement signed by Mr Joe Iniodu, Director, Media/Publicity Directorate of his Campaign Council, a desperate Akpabio lamented that he holds Atuekong Don Etiebet in the highest regards and pleaded with him not to publicly speak against his aspiration due to the potential electoral damage that Etiebet’s position would cause his aspiration.

“We appeal to our revered leader to sheathe his sword of war against Akpabio…We enjoin him to look at the big picture to see the expediency of Godswill Akpabio as the Senator in the 10th Senate when Nigeria is set to undergo a calibration that would unlock the potentials of the Nation for the benefit of the people of our dear State”, he pleaded.

Responding, Chief Etiebet insisted that under no circumstance will the people of Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District vote for the former Minister.

“We, in the District do not accept the verdict because of the inherent inconsistences in the run up to the primaries in our layman’s view but we fully respect the judgement, having come from a court and the Supreme Court for that matter. Although this point was not adduced in the Court, we from the Senatorial District have since resolved that it is the turn of Abak-5 Zone of the District and in particular, the Abak/Etim Ekpo/Ika Federal Constituency to produce the Senator this time, since all the other three Federal Constituencies in the Senatorial District have produced senators several times”.

According to Chief Etiebet, Ikot Ekpene federal Constituency where Senator Godswill Akpabio comes from has produced five senators since 1960 or three senators since 1999 including Godswill Akpabio himself, whereas Abak Federal Constituency has produced none. “That is why we in the District uninamously nominated DIG Udom Ekpoudom rtd from Etim Ekpo LGA of Abak Federal Constituency to contest under our great APC banner”.

“Senator Godswill Akpabio did not participate in that Senatorial Primary monitored by INEC but having failed in his Presidential bid that he was pursuing at the time of the Senatorial Primary, he rushed back at a later date to have a nocturnal primary not monitored by INEC to declare himself as the senatorial candidate”

“However, it is the resolve of the Abak-5 zone of the Senatorial District, where I come from, and its allies in Ikot Ekpene and Ikono/Ini Federal Constituencies to support any Abak Federal Constituency Candidate to win the election. It is their turn and it is just”, he insisted.