Dr. Udoma Ekarika is the director-general of Campaign Organisation of Akwa Ibom State Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governorship candidate, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe. Having served as Commissioner for Health as well as Works at different times in the state, Ekarika, in this interview with Acting News Editor (Saturday), AJIBOLA ABAYOMI, insists that despite charges hanging on the neck of the ACN governorship candidate, he will triumph over what he termed PDP antics to silence opposition. Excerpts…
You party is being accused of perpetrating violence in Akwa Ibom State by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, how do you react to that?
That allegation is laughable. We are very responsible people who believe in democratic process. What actually happened was that during the flag-off of our campaign, which we started in March when our presidential candidate, Nuhu Ribadu, came along with other leaders of the party like national chairman, Bisi Akande; former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu; Tom Ikimi and many others to Akwa Ibom. The PDP saw the crowd. They were jittery and were forced to swallow their assumption that there’s no opposition in the state. That day, (Governor Godswill) Akpabio was stunned when he saw our crowd, not knowing that we had been campaigning underground for months. When the governor organised his own rally in Uyo, the state capital, he could not use the stadium because he knew he would not get the crowd. He just went to one obscured primary school called St. Patrick. On March 22, we took our campaign to Ikot Ekpene, and were attacked by the PDP thugs. The police at Ikot Ekpene can testify to that. It took the extra reinforcement of the police to escort us to the venue of the rally after the governor’s supporters mobilised and burnt down many of our vehicles.
So in retaliation, your supporters returned to Uyo to damage government property. Right?
That is not true. It is PDP propaganda. The state government and the state PDP planned that attack just to rope our supporters. It could be the thugs they recruited in Uyo that did that. To buttress my point about the cause of the violence, the chairman of PDP chairmen in Akwa Ibom vowed in a newspaper that no Ibibio man would be allowed to campaign in Annang land which Ikot Ekpene is part of. This is crude. Akpabio is Annang and he has been campaigning across the state; why should he incite ethnic crisis against a fellow contestant?
But looking at the worth of burnt cars and other valuables bought by the state government to empower the citizens of the state, you think anybody has any justifiable reason for setting those things ablaze under the guise political revenge?
That action is condemnable in whatever form by any group whatever they claim they are and their motive. However, all these summed up to justify bad leadership Akpabio is giving to the Akwa Ibom people. That is why ACN is working to remove him from Government House at the polling booth during the election. Who is happy with the property that were destroyed or the people that were killed in the name of politics? Over 300 people have been assassinated in the last four years in the state. More than 2,000 people have been kidnapped. Billions of naira worth of property have been destroyed. All the destruction were orchestrated by Akpabio’s government. ACN would put an end to that during the election.
But the PDP is saying your party is not on ground; that your men are using violence to gain relevance?
Akwa Ibom State used to be 100 per cent PDP; but today, the calculation and permutation have changed. The state is now 99 per cent ACN. Majority of our members in ACN are aggrieved members of PDP that defected to build ACN owing to bad governance of PDP in the state. We are not planning to return to PDP because majority of our people are tired of the party. There is no government in Akwa Ibom at the moment.
If Akpabio’s government can built a university, an international airport and renovated and built public schools, why are you saying there is no government in the state?
Go round the state; the people would tell you the governor has done nothing when you compare what he has been collecting as allocation to what he has done. Akpabio in the last four years has collected over N1 trillion and yet nothing to show for it. His free and compulsory education policy is not practical but theoretical in nature. The airport was 100 per cent paid for by the former governor. Independent Power Plant of the state under Akpabio is nowhere to be found. In the last four years, he has not finished any project (he started). Facts don’t lie. All the projects he is commissioning are projects conceived and almost completed by past governors. The only project he started is e-Library, which is yet to be completed. I was a Commissioner for Works. Some of the roads he renovated in Uyo were put at N1 billion per kilometre.
But there is an allegation that you people fell out of favour with the governor because he refused to share the state with many of you now in opposition?
That is rubbish. We left the party because we don’t want to associate with bad government. What is happening in Akwa Ibom is a silent revolution. The cardinal responsibility of any government is to secure lives and property. The government has failed in that direction. Our people didn’t know violence before his tenure. We won’t allow the people to continue to suffer in the midst of plenty. Either you are Oron, Ibibio or Annang, we were enjoying our peace before Akpabio came. Right now, if you are not from Akpabio’s family, you can’t get anything done in government, excerpt you are close to the governor. That is nonsense. With all these resources, no single industry in Akwa Ibom. Akpanudoedehe will rebuild the state by creation of jobs and guaranteed security. The PDP should forget the governorship election because we will resist rigging. We will stop political intolerance. Our candidate is eminently qualified to lead the state as governor. Our government would not kill people because of political differences. Under no circumstance would our candidate succumb to PDP intimidation. Akpanudoedehe was a local government chairman, a senator and a minister in this country. He has the experience to manage the state. Akpabio would have been the best governor in Nigeria, but because of youthful exuberance, he has lost it. He has been denying that he collected N1 trillion from the federation account in the last four years, but the director-general of Finance and the Accountant-General of the Federation are in a position give the figure to you to know who was lying.
Don’t you think arraignment of Akpanudoedehe for treason and arson would be a setback for him during the governorship election?
How can that be? Did the police do any investigation before arriving at that conclusion? As far as we are concerned, the charges are frivolous. We believe the court will do justice by confining them to the dustbin of history. Akpabio is even campaigning for ACN with his high level of immaturity and intolerance. We are doing underground campaign. The sympathy for our party now is above 90 per cent. In a free and fair election, we would defeat the governor hands down. Akpanudoedehe is waiting to be sworn in as governor of Akwa Ibom because our people are tired of PDP.
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