Etim EtimThe All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant in Akwa Ibom State, Senator Ita Solomon Enang, has stated that the daily campaign activities embarked upon by Akan Udofia in parts of Annang land are meant to deceive our people.
“It is a clever ploy by him to present himself to the people as the candidate, and perhaps obtain some favours, but in actual fact, Akan is not the governorship candidate of APC. The Party has no governorship candidate as at today”, Enang told this writer.
Enang declared that Akwa Ibom people should not be deceived by unscrupulous politicians who are out to hoodwink the voters for personal gains.
“If you check INEC website today, you’d find that APC has no candidate. So, it is a deception at a very grand scale for Akan to be going from traditional rulers to village heads, claiming to be a candidate.
“It is sheer dishonesty for him to be lying to Akwa Ibom that he is the candidate, whereas APC has no candidate as at today. That speaks to the character of this man.’’
To further drive home his point that Udofia is not honest with our people, Enang repeated the famous saying by Mark Twain: “It is easier to fool people than it is to convince them that they have been fooled’’. Mark Twain is actually the pen name of Samuel Langhome Clemens, an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur and publisher.
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Drawing from this famous quote, Enang said that Udofia is only capitalizing on the ignorance of some of our people by claiming that he’s the candidate, whereas the Court of Appeal did not ever make such an order.
He asked, with a tinge of exasperation: “Why then is he filing a cross-appeal against the Court of Appeal judgement at the Supreme Court, seeking to be declared the candidate if the Appeal court had pronounced him the candidate?’’
This writer has also noticed that even some media houses have been misled into believing that Udofia was declared a candidate by the Court of Appeal.
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Both Enang and Udofia have filed cross-appeals at the Supreme Court against the judgement of the Court of Appeal, with both seeking to be the rightful candidate, and the case is coming up for hearing next Tuesday, February 21.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja had declared that the Federal High Court in Uyo, which had ordered a fresh governorship primary, had no jurisdiction for entertaining the case. But because the Appeal Court did not go further to make a declarative order on who the candidate is, the party has remained without a candidate. This is evident on INEC’s website.
But Udofia had been going around in only Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District campaigning with Senator Akpabio, giving the impression that he is the candidate.
“Perhaps, Akan is being used as a booster agent to help Akpabio campaign for his Senate seat,’’ Enang fired back.
“I have filed all my processes at the Supreme Court, and I’m asking the Supreme Court to declare me the candidate of APC in Akwa Ibom. I hope that the case would be concluded before March 11,’’ he concluded, matter-of-factly.
Enang is represented by two SANs, Messrs Mbah Ukweni and Robert Emukpoeru.
Etim Etim
ETIM ETIM is a journalist, banker and author. He has been a member of the Editorial Board of The Guardian, a Regional Manager in Access Bank and is currently a Columnist in Prime Business Africa, The Cable and Businessday newspapers.
He is also the Chief Executive of Stein Meyer Communications, a major media consultancy and the author of the best-selling book, "Akwa Ibom Heroes: Inside Story of the Fight for Abrogation of Onshore-Offshore Oil Dichotomy" and co-author of another book, "Osinbajo Strides: Defining Moments of an Innovative Leader".
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