A think-tank group, Eket Collective, rose from a crucial meeting on Saturday night, warning suspected trouble makers who are allegedly plotting to set Akwa Ibom State on fire because of the preferred 2023 governorship choice in the state to watch their back and their instigating utterances.
A top-ranking functionary of the group, Solomon Okpo, told our reporter on telephone that they will also resist ‘’very strongly the gutter attack on Governor Udom Emmanuel for supporting the governorship aspiration of his Lands and Water Resources Commissioner, Paster Umo Eno.’’
Okpo who is also the publisher of a Christian and sport newspapers, said some media practitioners based in the state are either misguided or mischievous in their narratives of the unfolding governorship tussle in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to the publisher, ‘’Eket Collective frowned seriously at the labeling of clerics backing Pastor Eno as ‘greedy’ and that they allegedly want to control the spiritual and political affairs of Akwa Ibom.’’
This is coming as Udom in some political circles of the state is speculated to be nursing a 2023 presidential ambition. The governor is also alleged to be planning to dump the PDP to All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari’s party.
‘’The warped logic polluting the political space in the state is that if the governor defects to APC he might have set the PDP on fire which according to them, will polarize PDP and make it difficult for them to present a common front to resist APC. For us, this kind of argument belongs to the gutter.
‘’What they fail to understand is that politics is all about interest. We are not aware of any law that bars a sitting governor from preferring a candidate that should, in his wisdom, better serve the interest of the state. The race for the PDP governorship ticket is not yet over till its State Congress recruits a governorship candidate’’, the Eket Collective activist said.
Besides Pastor Eno, other frontline political forces chasing the PDP governorship ticket include former Executive Vice Chairman of ExxonMobil, Udom Inoyo, former Speaker of the state House of Assembly and currently a member of the House of Representatives, Onofiok Luke; business tycoon, Akan Udofia; Senator Bassey Albert, Information and Strategy Commissioner, Ini Ememobong; and Economic Development and Ibom Deep Seaport Commissioner, Akan Okon.
