PRESS STATEMENT BY UYO SENATORIAL DISTRICT MEDIA PRACTITIONERS ON JUNIOR MINISTER EKPERIKPE EKPO’S RECENT FALSE ANALOGY ON PEACE IN AKWA IBOM STATE
During last Sunday’s thanksgiving service to mark the Akwa Ibom State’s anniversary, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Mr Ekperikpe Ekpo, took a swipe at the sensibility of our people by deliberately telling lies on issues bothering on the political antecedents in our State.
Glibly attempting to rationalize falsehood, Mr Ekpo told a bewildered congregation that when Senator Godswill Akpabio defected to APC in 2018 for the purpose of becoming Senate President, Deacon Udom Emmanuel became angry. He went further to urge that the Governor, Pastor Eno should convene a meeting to reconcile Godswill Akpabio and Udom Emmanuel
It is often said that when lies are told too many times there is a presumption for people to take it as truth especially when there is no counter opinion on the matter.
This fact is even more pronounced, in the error-laden remarks made by the Hon. Ekperikpe Ekpo at the International Christian Worship Center in Uyo.
We in the Uyo Senatorial District Media Practitioners Forum (USDMPF) find the Hon. Minister’s remarks and claims very disturbing, especially regarding the peace of this State, and feel obligated to set the record straight in the interest of the public.
As media professionals, we are not holding brief for Mr Udom Emmanuel, but as those who witnessed Senator Godswill Akpabio’s defection in 2018, we make bold to say that the comments by Ekperikpe Ekpo were not only false, but ill-conceived and ill-intended.
We recall that before the formal defection of Senator Godswill Akpabio, then-Senate Minority Leader of the 9th Senate, he started making some uncomplimentary remarks against the then Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel stating that all was not well in the State.
We want to place on record that it was within the rights of Senator Godswill Akpabio to determine his political future, and his defection to the All Progressives Congress APC to further his political career had absolutely nothing to do with the then Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel who respected his decision. However, it was on the heels of the defection that Akpabio launched the most vitriolic and inflammatory campaigns against Udom Emmanuel, who at the time was seeking a re-election. So for being such a ‘peacemaker’, we beg to ask, where was ObongEmem when Akpabio in2018, labeled Udom as “his gateman” who can be sacked anytime by the house owner(himself)?
Where was Obongemem when Akpabio rended the air with vicious chants that Udom Emmanuel was a mistake he made in 2015 and he will oust him from Government House and send him back to Lagos in 2019?
Where was Ekperikpe Ekpo when Akpabio proclaimed a Warsaw saw war cry, declaring that he would invade Akwa Ibom with federal might and capture the State in three hours?
Where was ObongEmem when Akpabio declared in an ultimatum that everyone working in Government House Uyo should vacate before 31st December 2018, so that the then Governor would be left with only his wife and driver?
Where was the emergency ObongEmem when APC imported the infamous, ‘Edo thugs’, to come and cause mayhem in the State in the 2019 elections?
Ekperikpe Ekpo claimed that before now, the opposition was never allowed to use government facilities for their political gathering. As insincere as he is, he forgets that the same Ikot Ekpene stadium was used by Senator Akpabio for his defection in 2018 and all his subsequent political campaigns. Ekperikpe forgets that the State’s international stadium was released for the APC presidential campaigns of both Buhari and Tinubu respectively.
It is on record that Mr Udom Emmanuel never replied his former-boss, Senator Akpabio or the APC family for all the insults heaped on him.
Another vexing remark by Ekperikpe Ekpo was on the issue of peace in Akwa Ibom. Again, the Forum wishes to State that if there was a governor in Akwa Ibom State who was very intentional in institutionalizing peace in Akwa Ibom State, that it was Governor was Udom Emmanuel. When we hear people like Ekperikpe Ekpo urging the current governor, Pastor Umo Eno not to return the State to what it was before, we wonder if he’s referring to the dark bloody era of Governor Akpabio where Akwa Ibom was turned into the kidnapping minefield of Nigeria because he was certainly not referring to the peaceful era of the immediate past administration.
Again, Ekperikpe Ekpo claimed that when Senator Akpabio defected to the APC family 90 percent were his enemies because he supported the emergence of Governor Udom Emmanuel.
This is another phantom lie by the Petroleum Minister who is in the business of blaming Udom Emmanuel for all of Akpabio’s bad actions. Before Akpabio’s defection, the then Governor Udom Emmanuel had a good working relationship with Obong Umana Okon Umana who contested the 2015 Governorship election against him, and who was eventually appointed the MD of the Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone and later a Minister of Niger Delta Affairs.
While the immediate past government ran a smooth tenure, with the Governor and his only deputy, smiling over a peaceful State, the tenure of his predecessor was not so smooth,as even the ObongEmem could not boast of ability to assess his native Ika local government area as well as the neighbouring Etim Ekpo and Ukanafun.
On the repeal of the Traditional Ruler’s law which he described as a burning issue, it is now very clear that it was Ekperikpe Ekpo and Senator Godswill Akpabio that allegedly instigated the violent protests and abuse on the Governor’s office through their supporters in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District and Oro federal constituency. The Senate President and his Minister obviously held meetings and instigated a campaign of calumny against a commendable initiative to strengthen the vociferous prowess of our traditional institution.
The Forum has observed that, the ObongEmem possibly found it difficult to communicate at the anniversary service yesterday, because he was unable t understand the reason he was invited to speak in the function Ab initio. Of a truth, Ekperikpe is neither a former Governor or deputy. He clearly had no locus standi to mount that rostrum, let alone the effrontery to attack the former Governors.
Finally, when will ObongEmem also invite a peace deal between Senator Godswill Akpabio and his former boss, Obong Attah? Or does the Minister of State, still see nothing wrong in how Attah was ostracized and maligned throughout the eight years of Akpabio’s reign as Governor? When will ObongEmem ask Akpabio to apologize for refusing to allow Obong Attah use a hotel facility he himself built during his birthday?
Nobody should take advantage of Governor Umo Eno’s kind magnanimity to drag him into collision with the immediate past Governor who has always maintained his calm inspite of these unwarranted provocations.
No individual should hide under the cloak of peace to provoke the sensibilities of our people. Akwa Ibom people do not have short or warped knowledge of history.
And we don’t want this State to ever again be taken back to that era of an untold war against peace witnessed between 2007 and 2015.
Hon Victor Etim
Dir, Public and Strategic Communication