I’m Not Backing Akpabio, Says YPP Candidate

By Patrick Odey

A contender for the Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial seat on the platform of the Young Progressives Party, Emmanuel Ekon, has debunked insinuations that he is backing the All Progressives Congress candidate, Senator Godswill Akpabio.

Addressing newsmen on Sunday in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, the former House of Representatives member for Abak Federal Constituency, said the rumour was a “deliberately orchestrated propaganda by mischief makers with evil intent to break the ranks of my teeming supporters across the 10 local government areas of Akwa Ibom North-West.”

The former Chairman, Local Content Committee in the ninth National Assembly, noted that “the major aim of the purveyors of such infantile and baseless falsehood are my competitors who are afraid of my towering popularity among the electorates.”

While urging his teeming supporters to “disregard the cheap lies intended to again rob the Abak Federal Constituency of its long and overdue right in 2023,” Ekon recalled that the slot had over the years been rotated only between the Ikot Ekpene, Ukanafun/Oruk and Ikono/Ini federal constituencies, leaving the zone he described as Abak-3, comprising Abak, Etim Ekpo and Ika LGAs, to wallow in wanton underdevelopment, infrastructural decay and joblessness amongst the youths.”

He added, “I and Godswill Akpabio don’t belong to the same party. Godswill is a member of the APC, from Essien Udim LGA in Ikot Ekpene Federal Constituency. By the grace of God, I am a candidate of the YPP, from Etim Ekpo, in Abak Federal Constituency. My major mission is to return to the Red Chamber in order to address the injustice meted on the zone for several years.

“I thank God for Chief Don Etiebet, he is a member of the Board of Trustees of the APC, from Ukanafun/Oruk Anam Federal Constituency. He told Akpabio to leave this contest for only contenders from Abak-3, for the sake of justice, equity and fair play, yet he (Godswill) remains adamant, even when it was obvious that the former Deputy Inspector General Udom Ekpoudom, my kinsman from Etim Ekpo LGA, was on the verge of getting the ticket.

“I am urging stakeholders, elders, leaders and youths including all eligible voters from the zone to rise against this bare-faced impunity and injustice against a people who had over the years chosen the path of honour to wait for this number of years. Therefore, we must take the battle into our hands to correct this anomaly with our permanent voter cards beginning with the presidential and National Assembly polls on February 25.

Source: The Punch