Amid boycott, Akwa Ibom Speaker, ex-adviser, commissioner emerge PDP senatorial candidates

APC chief wants zoning in A’Ibom done on ethnic basis
Speaker of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Mr. Aniekan Bassey, immediate past national legal adviser of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Emmanuel Enoidem, and former Commissioner for Economic Development, Dr. Ekong Sampson, have been elected as candidates for three senatorial districts on the PDP platform for the 2023 general election.

Bassey clinched the party’s ticket in Akwa Ibom North East Senatorial District (Uyo) after two opponents boycotted the primary.

In Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District, Enoidem emerged as standard bearer, while Samson won in South Senatorial District.

Akparawa Ephraim Inyangeyen boycotted the exercise conducted at Special Protection Unit of Nigeria Police Force Base 27 in Onna council area of the state.

“I am in possession of an enrolled order of Court wherein it pronounced that the Peoples Democratic Party, which I am a member, should maintain status quo ante bellum in a case on whether or not the contentious issue of ad hoc delegates be used for the election of candidates of the party for the forthcoming general elections,” he said

MEANWHILE, an All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant in Akwa Ibom State, Larry Esin, has emphasised the need for zoning in the state and the country, saying it would ensure fairness.

Esin lamented that the zoning formula currently practised in the state with regard to the election of governor negates the original concept of rotating governorship slots around three major ethnic groups in the state.

He said founding fathers of the state had agreed on sharing power among ethnic nationalities but current political leaders decided on senatorial districts, a development that resulted in disunity in the state.

Esin, however, pledged to restore the lost hope of citizens and revive ailing sectors of the state economy, adding that governorship is not a white-collar responsibility but a blue-collar job.
He stated his commitment to Information and Communication Technology (ICT), tourism development, and agriculture.

He said: “Zoning, as it stands now in Akwa Ibom State, has failed. It was supposed to engender ethnic inclusion but the state is now more divided than before. My government would partner various communities for accelerated and even development of the state.”

Meanwhile, the Chairman of APC Alliance, a grassroots leadership initiative within the party has passed a vote of confidence on the Obong Stephen Ntukekpo- led state executive of the party.

In a statement issued in Uyo, the APC Alliance Chairman, Ime Mbom, said the collaborative efforts of stakeholders were needed to win the general elections for the APC in Akwa Ibom State in 2023.

Mbom, the premier minority whip in the First Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, dismissed hints that the executive had concluded plans to impose a defected aspirant from the Peoples Democratic Party as the APC governorship candidate.