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‘No crisis between Emmanuel and predecessor’

By Inemesit Akpan-Nsoh, Uyo
10 January 2018   |   4:21 am
Akwa Ibom State Attorney General and Commissioner for justice, Mr. Uwemedimo Nwoko has dismissed the rumoured bickering between Governor Udom Emmanuel and his predecessor, Sen. Godswill Akpabio.

Udom Emmanuel

Akwa Ibom State Attorney General and Commissioner for justice, Mr. Uwemedimo Nwoko has dismissed the rumoured bickering between Governor Udom Emmanuel and his predecessor, Sen. Godswill Akpabio.

Nwoko said the insinuation regarding Akpabio’s comment about the political situation in the state was a misrepresentation of facts that does not infer any face off between Emmanuel and his former boss.

While addressing the media in his office yesterday, the Attorney General the cordial relationship that existed between the two before, during and after the 2015 general elections and even till date is still on a good note.

According to him, “What Akpabio meant when he said all was not well in the politics of Akwa Ibom State, was basically for political office holders from Ikot Ekpene senatorial district, to sit up and work to satisfy their people to get them favourably disposed to the administration and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Nwoko noted that though the Uyo-Ikot Ekpene Road, being a major gateway into the state truly worries the immediate past governor, the present administration has however done so much to ensure the completion of the project.

He said the recent ‘all is not well’ comment by Akpabio was not what people interpreted it to mean, saying, “that was the senator’s usual style communicating with members of the PDP to sit up and be better positioned as the state has no other option than the party come 2019.”

According to him, “At the recent breakfast meeting, which the people of Ikot Ekpene Senatorial district later had with the governor, the efforts the state government was making to get the hotel in Ikot Ekpene functional or to complete the Uyo-Ikot Ekpene Road, which
Akpabio had complained about was, thoroughly explained by the Governor Emmanuel to the satisfaction of stakeholders from the Ikot Ekpene.

“Every good coach, who wants to win the next match, must tell his team not to underrate the opponent. That was why the former Deputy

Governor, Mr. Chris Ekpenyong after listening to the governor’s explanation declared that the people were satisfied with the governor’s explanation.”

He corrected the wrong impression that when Akpabio said ‘all is not well’, he was telling the Ikot Ekpene senatorial people to work hard and that they should not go to sleep or be complacent. Having a governor here doesn’t mean that you should go and sleep when you know that the governor is the strongest point they have as they do not have the support from the national.”

He noted that as far as Akpabio is concerned, Akwa Ibom has no alternative platform “we will play one party. That decision has been taken and there is not wavering about it; no second thought about which party we are going to play. We are playing PDP and as far as we are playing PDP, PDP will not even have a second aspirant besides Emmanuel.

“The PDP at the national level banks on Akwa Ibom as one of the strongest pillars that are going to back it up the in the march to the federal level.

“We are very satisfied with the performance of the governor and even the issue of Uyo- Ikot Ekpene Road; you needed to have heard the explanation of the governor. The governor since June last year has been on the neck of the Commissioner for Special Duties, he gave him a December deadline that he wanted to use the hotel in Ikot Ekpene for the last Yuletide festival, and there was no executive meeting we held that he would not put the commissioner on the spot to explain or give him a confirmation that the hotel would be used in December, but then you can propose, you can project, but the very best effort of the commissioner wasn’t enough to enable to use of the hotel,” he said.

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