By Emegwoako C. Paschal
Senator Godswill Akpabio, a former minister of Niger Delta affairs, has been urged by an All Progressive Congress (APC) chieftain in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Don Etiebet, to resign so that Mr. Udom Ekpoudom (rtd), a retired deputy inspector general of police, can run for the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District in the general elections of 2023.
Elder statesman and former Minister of Petroleum Etiebet forewarned Apkabio against running for office lest he suffers a disgraceful defeat.
The four federal constituencies of Ukanafun/Oruk Anam, Ikot Ekpene/Essien Udim/Obot Akara, Ini/Ikono, and Abak/Etim Ekpo/Ika, which make up the Akwa Ibom North West (Ikot Ekpene) Senatorial District, were his justification.
He asserted that “brother dey chop, brother no chop” is not a good thing in the eyes of all peaceful Annang people.
And that the Abak/Etim Ekpo/Ika Federal Constituency, which hasn’t had a senator since 1960, should be given the ticket this time around.
The former petroleum minister noted that the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) had agreed to the arrangement and that Senator Christopher Ekpenyong from the federal constituencies of Ikot Ekpene, Essien Udim, and Obot Akara had resigned in order for Mr. Emmanuel Enoidem from the constituencies of Etim Ekpo and Abak to represent the PDP in the senate.
Godswill Akpabio, who has even run for the senate, should resign in order to make way for DIG, according to his logic. Ekpoudom (rtd).
He regretted that, rather than walking the path of honor, Akpabio “has run back from his failed presidential bid to embark on all the shenanigans to be declared the senatorial candidate for the district again by a court order.
“That is why the entire Abak-5 constituency, comprised of the five Local Government Areas of the former Abak Division in Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District, has resolved to support a candidate from the Abak/Etim Ekpo/Ika Federal Constituency from any party to win if the APC must field a candidate from outside the Abak-5 constituency.”
Etiebet reminded Akpabio that when his late brother, Senator Donald Dick Etiebet, from Oruk Anam/Ukanafun Federal Constituency, left the Senate in 1983 to run for governor of then-Cross River State under NPN, he went to the Akpabio family to pick and support Nsima Akpabio to become a senator simply for peaceful coexistence and brotherliness among the people of Annang land.
