2019: Akwa Ibom Elders Censures Akpabio Over War Comments

Akwa Ibom leaders have condemned the comments credited to Senator Godswill Akpabio that he would turn Akwa Ibom into a war zone and make it a conquered territory in 2019.

They vowed that they would resist such attempts to instigate crisis and violence in the state.

The elders said this on Monday at Onna during a mega endorsement rally in honour of Governor Udom Emmanuel.

They urged Governor Emmanuel not to be distracted by the antics of the opposition who had vowed to capture the state by all means with the use of ‘federal might’.

A former National Assembly Member and former Minister of Lands and Housing, Chief Nduese Essien, who described the Governor as a prudent manager of State resources, warned against any threat of resort to federal might to rig election in Akwa Ibom, saying Akwa Ibom people will resist such attempt.

“Let them bring federal might and develop our state not to rig election, we will resist every attempt to rig election in 2019,” Essien said.

This view was collaborated by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas, and Member representing Akwa Ibom North-East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Bassey Albert.

He said “They have vowed to use federal might on us but no federal might will work on us. Akwa Ibom is PDP. God says I will upturn and upturn and upturn until his will is established. Power belongs to God. You are a divine choice of God for this state and there is nothing the power of man can do about that”.

Senator Godswill Akpabio had while speaking at a funeral service in Enugu, reportedly told the gathering that if it meant using war to capture Akwa Ibom for the APC, he was prepared to do so in a similar manner German Junta Adolf Hitler invaded Warsaw, Poland in 1940, leaving more than 600,000 dead.

On his part, pioneer National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Anietie Okon condemned the immediate past Senate Minority Leader as a mistake, who rather than show bravery in the national scene as his Annang people were renowned, chose to chicken into submission by joining a party everyone in the state holds in disdain.

Deputy Governor, Mr. Moses Ekpo said “The entire Ikot Ekpene senatorial district is set to tie kith and kin with Eket Senatorial District. Udom is our in-law, the wife is our daughter.”

Describing Udom Emmanuel’s project as a pan-Akwa Ibom project, the Speaker of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Barr. Onofiok Luke pleaded with political actors in the state to stop heating up the polity with ethnic sentiments.

“Udom Gabriel Emmanuel’s second term is not an ethnic agenda. It is a pan-Akwa Ibom agenda. We are urging you from the House of Assembly, please let us stop the ethnic agenda. Let us promote an Akwa Ibom agenda,” he said.

Also speaking, Senator Effiong Bob warned that, “any attempt to shift the goal post in 2019, we bind it in Jesus name. Ikot Ekpene shine your eyes, don’t allow any man to mislead you. We are for Udom”.

Responding, Governor Udom Emmanuel who thanked the stakeholders and leaders of the senatorial district and the entire people of the state for their reassurance and declaration of support for his administration, said he was undaunted by the antics of the opposition, noting that with the endorsement, he had been emboldened to deliver more democracy dividends to the people of the state.

He promised to present his scorecard on Friday this week when he would formally declare his intention to re-contest for a second term in office.

Highpoint of the ceremony was the defection of Dr. Udoma Bob Ekarika, a factional chairman of the APC in the State, Deputy chairman of APC, Mr Emmanuel Udoh, and other top APC stalwarts to the PDP.

Chief Sunny Udom, a former Campaign Director General of APC in 2015, while bringing the defectors, vowed that “no steel or iron can stop God from returning the Governor for a second term in office.”