A’Ibom 2023: No Accord Between Emmanuel, Senator Akpan, Says Gov’s Aide

Okon Bassey in Uyo

The Akwa Ibom State Government has said that there was no agreement that Governor Udom Emmanuel would hand over power at the end of his eight years in office to Senator Bassey Albert Akpan, who is gubernatorial aspirant from Akwa Ibom North East (Uyo) Senatorial District in the 2023 general elections.

The state government was reacting to the claims by the former Chief of Staff to the Governor, Mr. Ephraim Inyangeyen, of a purported  political accord  that ceded the governorship position of the state in 2023 to Senator Albert.

The Special Assistant to the Governor on Research and Documentation, Mr. Essien Ndueso, said there is no record of such claims and described it as laughable and a fictitious.

Ndueso, who spoke in Uyo, argued that the election of Governor Udom Emmanuel in 2015 came after the people of the state had unanimously agreed that whether by zoning or rotation, the political authority of the state from 2015-2023 should reside in Eket Senatorial District.

He wondered how Senator Albert could have stepped down for Governor Emmanuel in a race he was not qualified to contest.

“Senator Albert was at the time the Commissioner for Finance and was part of the state delegation led by the then Governor Godswill Akpabio that toured all the federal constituencies in Akwa Ibom State through town hall meetings.

“He witnessed a general opinions of traditional and religious clerics, the business and political classes, traders and artisans, women and youth leaders, and the consensus was that power should shift, rotate or be zoned to Eket Senatorial District in 2015,”  he said.

Ndueso also took a swipe at the allegation of poor reward system peddled by the former Commissioner for Works, Mr. Ephraim Inyang-eyen.

He said that Senator Albert negotiated and got a senate ticket ahead of his kinsman, Senator Ita Enang, in 2015 and got returned to the Senate in 2019, still another case of reward, and wondered why a person who has been appointed a Finance Commissioner for over seven years and senator for another eight years would be complaining of not being adequately rewarded.

He felt disappointed that Inyang-eyen who joined the state government for the first time in 2015, before he was sacked for incompetence few weeks ago, could come out to mislead the public on a nonexistent accord that had no witness except himself.