N’Splash:

AKWA IBOM NORTH WEST SENATORIAL DISTRICT ADVOCATES FOR JUSTICE, PEACE AND TOGETHERNESS

PRESS RELEASE

THE CROCODILE TEARS OF SENATOR GODSWILL AKPABIO’S CAMPAIGN ORGANIZATION WOULD NOT STOP HIS DISGRACEFUL DEFEAT IN THE COMING ELECTION

We have been forced to react to the morally bankrupt, intentionally perfidious and worthless press statement, credited to the wobbly Godswill Akpabio Campaign Organization, construed with the evil intention to hoodwink the masses of our senatorial district and indeed Nigerians, into believing and accepting the imaginary, illusory, illogical, empty, false and hollow claim that the salvation of the entire District, lies with the selfish, discombobulating, arrogant, anarchic, self-ingratiating, power-hungry, destructive and inordinate ambition of Godswill Akpabio to force and manipulate his way into the senate of the Federal Republic yet again, breaking laws, rules, conventions, traditions, institutions and the harmonious existence of our people along the way.

In the said Press Statement, signed by Mr Joe Iniodu, which was released to counter the warning by elder statesman and APC Chieftain, Atuekong Don Etiebet, that the Senate seat in 2023 is zoned to Abak/Etim Ekpo/Ika Federal Constituency, who are determined to ensure the emergence of a Senator from that zone in order to engender harmony and peace, it was vaingloriously alleged that Akpabio is the only solution to the woes of the district.

We wish to state for the records that our Senatorial District is committed to the course of ensuring that a senator emerges from Abak/Etim Ekpo/Ika Federal Constituency in 2023. We would use the instrument of the PVC to once again, teach Senator Akpabio a few lessons in decency, decorum and respect for orderliness, which he stubbornly refused to learn in 2019.

There is no doubt that Godswill Akpabio and his media hirelings, alongside the corrosive agents of anarchy who operate within his fast-disappearing cocoon of influence, wish to ride on the proverbial “short memory of the public”, to emotionally blackmail voters and promote Senator Akpabio’s indecent selfish proclivity for naked power, without minding the long-term cost to the growth of the society, destabilization of social cohesion and harmony within the entire senatorial district and country. Rather, he feels that the world revolves around his maniacal oversized ego, which must be massaged with continuous access to power, ad infinitum.

We remind Akpabio’s Campaign Council that:

1. Rotation of public offices was institutionalized in the district as a matter of decency for peace and harmony to reign.
2. The emergence of Akpabio as governor in 2007, emanated from power rotation principle that was agreed in Atuekong Don Etiebet’s house in Ewet Housing Estate – Uyo in 1998, long before Akpabio joined politics in 2002 as a Commissioner, under the government of Arc. (Obong) Victor Attah.
3. Senators Emmanuel Ibok Essien and Aloysius Etok were elected on that principle.
4. Godswill Akpabio argued that the tradition of rotating the senate seat after every single-term of four years among the respective Federal Constituencies was counter-productive, hence, he coalesced everyone into accepting that each zone should be allowed to serve for two-terms of eight years, after which the seat would be yielded to another zone.
5. Above was the reason which made Senator Aloysius Etok (from Ikono/Ini Federal Constituency) to be allowed to serve for two terms between 2007-2015.
6. In order to maintain the two-term rotation principle and prepare the template for seamless transition of the senate seat to another zone in 2023 after Akpabio distorted it, Senator (Dr.) Chris Ekpenyong of the PDP who hails from Ikot Ekpene/Essien Udim/Obot Akara zone, contested and defeated Senator Godswill Akpabio of the APC (from the Essien Udim/Obot Akara/Ikot Ekpene zone) in the 2019 election.
7. Abak/Etim Ekpo/Ika Federal constituency has not produced any Senator in sixty-three years of independence of Nigeria and twenty-four years of the 4th Republic, while the Ikot Ekpene/Essien Udim/Obot Akara Federal Constituency where Akpabio comes from, has been to the senate for five times within the period.
8. The allusion in the press release that only Akpabio has the capacity and competence to be a senator against any other person from Abak federal Constituency, shows the disdainful contempt of the maniacal Godswill Akpabio to a section and people of the Senatorial District. We may wish to ask, what did Akpabio achieve for the District in his first term as Senator? If he is that competent, why is he unable to display his scorecard of achievements as Senator for four years and as Minister of Niger Delta for another three years? Of course, we know the answer. He served himself and not the district.
9. The sudden attack on zoning as “parochialism that cannot improve their collective lot” after Akpabio benefitted immensely from that arrangement, proves yet again that Akpabio and his lackeys destroy every bridge after crossing it, to ensure that no one else can. It is a most disgusting and selfish position to be in.
10. Akpabio’s Campaign Council must be informed to advise Akpabio to give peace a chance by respecting the wishes of the leadership and people of Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District by letting the zoning of the senate seat in 2023 to remain.
11. Akpabio’s Campaign Council must be asked to advise Akpabio that he should stay out of this election to avoid a deeper and more embarrassing repeat of what happened to him in 2019.

We are aware of his boastful suggestions that he has the entire Nigerian Judiciary in his front pocket, to be used to steal victory at all cost after his impending trouncing at the polls across the senatorial district. We serve notice to him and other mercenaries-of-evil lurking around the corner, that we are prepared to neutralize them and defend the right of our people to choose their senator and other representatives in the 2023 election, freely. No amount of rigmarole and appeal to emotion, would stop the defeat of Senator Akpabio in the February 25, 2023 election, irrespective of his insatiable appetite to ingratiate and luxuriate himself with power.

Signed:

Uduak Mendie Akpan
Convener