Akwa Ibom state All Progressives Congress, APC, has accused Gov. Udom Emmanuel of the crisis in the state Assembly Crisis as a ploy to divert attention from his poor performance.
Addressing Journalists on Thursday at the Party’s Secretariat in Uyo, state Chairman of the APC, Ini Okopido said, “the governor instigated this crisis to take attention away, and divert public discourse from the fact he has achieved very little or nothing in the last three and a half years.”
According to Okopido, Emmanuel was orchestrating a political crisis in the state all in the bid to hide his poor performance in office.
Debunking the claim that the APC attempted to impeach the governor, he said: “Let me state categorically that we in APC have never discussed plans to impeach the governor, and indeed, we are not interested in moving for his impeachment. Rather, we are eagerly waiting for Saturday, 2nd March 2019, when Akwa Ibom people will vote out this incompetent governor. We have just three months to go, so there is no need to waste time on impeachment. But we should warn the governor that if he continues in his act of illegality of instigating crisis in the House of Assembly and invading the House of Assembly with thugs, the long arm of the law will catch up with him. Or put it differently, the law will take its course.”
Below is the full text of his speech:
As you are aware, I had issued a Press Statement on Tuesday in which I stated the position of our Party on this crisis. I am sure you all saw the Statement. I had noted in the Statement that this crisis was instigated by the Governor, in connivance with Hon. Onofiok Luke, the former Speaker. The illegality of declaring the seats of five APC members of the House vacant, despite subsisting court actions, was the immediate cause of this crisis.
We have however reliably learnt that the governor instigated this crisis to take attention away, and divert public discourse from the fact he has achieved very little or nothing in the last three and a half years. Even our former governor, Arc (Obong) Victor Attah, said this very succinctly in his latest book titled ‘It is well with my soul’. In the book, Obong Attah stated that he has not seen any visible mark of achievement recorded by Udom Emmanuel. Yet, this administration has earned well over a Trillion Naira since May 2015. This was widely reported on the day of the book launch and in the days after. So it is clear to us that as election is just three months away, our governor is desperate to take our attention away from, and divert public discourse, from his poor performance, by orchestrating a political crisis in the state. How clever! But Akwa Ibom people are too smart to be deceived. They know that this is the only governor in the state that would leave office without a legacy- an important structure that could be named after him.
Gentlemen of the Press, you might have noticed that my brother, Mr. Paul Ekpo, the State PDP Chairman, had issued a Statement yesterday. It was apparently intended as his response to my Press Statement which I issued late Tuesday. In his Statement, the PDP Chairman had stated that our members in the House of Assembly are out to impeach the governor. This is far from the truth. Let me state categorically that we in APC have never discussed plans to impeach the governor, and indeed, we are not interested in moving for his impeachment. Rather, we are eagerly waiting for Saturday, 2nd March 2019, when Akwa Ibom people will vote out this incompetent governor. We have just three months to go, so there is no need to waste time on impeachment. But we should warn the governor that if he continues in his act of illegality of instigating crisis in the House of Assembly and invading the House of Assembly with thugs, the long arm of the law will catch up with him. Or put it differently, the law will take its course.
In his Press Conference on Tuesday, the Governor had called on the new Commissioner of Police to be redeployed from the State. Paul Ekpo also repeated this in his Statement. I am sure that even a Primary School Pupil knows that neither the PDP, nor the governor, nor the House of Assembly has the right to transfer a CP, or any police man. The governor can redeploy his Commissioners and Perm Secs. But not the CP. So the call for the removal of the CP by Udom Emmanuel and Paul Ekpo is simply an act of irresponsible flippancy. We know that the CP’s offence, as far as the governor is concerned, is because he has not gone to the Governor’s Lodge to take instructions from Udom Emmanuel as his predecessors used to do.
We in APC in AkwaIbom have absolute confidence in the new Commissioner of Police who was posted to the State only a few days ago. We have not seen any form of partisanship in what the CP has done. We rather believe that the CP is a consummate professional, and so we trust that the CP will perform his duties creditably no matter the inducement and intimidation from Udom Emmanuel and his PDP. If indeed the governor and his party have been in the business of influencing CP postings before now, they should stop it and concentrate on delivering good governance, which they have however failed to do. The era of impunity is over.
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Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, yesterday, we noticed that the Commissioner for Women Affairs was asked by the governor to mobilize PDP women onto the streets to protest. They wore T-Shirts with Divine Mandate, the name of Udom Emmanuel Campaign Oganisation, boldly written on them. They were on the streets dancing, in the name of protests. They were PDP Women. The ordinary AkwaIbom women are too busy working hard in the farms, markets and in their businesses, and so they cannot be misled by this clueless Governor.
But we should be quick to note that whenever this governor gets himself into self-inflicted crisis, he runs to women and uses them as ‘human shield’. What has he done for Akwa Ibom women in the last three and half years? And he does the same thing to our youths and students. He calls the youths and students to the streets ever so often. Has this governor ever paid scholarships and bursaries to students? No. Has he created jobs for our youths? No. Has he built any new primary or secondary school blocks to decongest some of our schools? Has he renovated these schools? No. Has he refurbished and cleaned up Urua Akpan Andem, the biggest market in our State where our women ply their trade? Is this market not one of the dirtiest markets in the country? Has he paid primary school pensioners? Have our primary school teachers not abandoned the classroom, and taken to riding keke and mini buses? Why is the governor always quick to use our children and women as ‘human shields’, put them on highways to protest and risk their lives? Whose children are these? Where are his own children?
Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen, we have noticed the governor’s predilection to insult APC leaders, especially his former Master, Mentor and Great Teacher, Senator Godswill Akpabio. The governor is simply presenting himself to the whole world as an ingrate and a man who bites the finger that fed him. To our pain, Akpabio brought Udom and made him governor. But today, Udom Emmanuel has turned around to vilify, attack and insult the former governor. What an ingrate! What a betrayer! We leave him to his Conscience and the judgement of his Creator.
