The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Akwa Ibom, Nsima Ekere, has said that he was confident that Senator Godswill Akpabio will not betray the party by working for other candidates.
Ekere spoke with reporters immediately after a meeting with the party’s National Working Committee, NWC, in Abuja last evening.
The defection of Akpabio, a former Governor of the state, to the APC and his former deputy’s emergence as the party’s governorship candidate, have raised questions whether the candidate will have the full support of his former boss.
Ekere described Akpabio as a “total APC party man” who is working for all candidates of the party.
He said, “I can assure you that Chief Godswill Akpabio and his entire political structure are solidly working for the APC and all our candidates in the next general elections, not only in Akwa Ibom but all over the country.
“He is not the kind of person that will be working for the APC and the President on one side and working against other candidates of the party. He is totally an APC man, a loyal party leader in the state and he will definitely work for all APC candidates in the election.
“Before the last primaries, the former governor you are talking about joined the party at end of August and the primary was in early October and way before the primary, he was my number one supporter, going round the state campaigning for me to emerge candidate of the party. So, there is absolutely no truth to that.”
Ekere also spoke on the speculated plot by the APC to use force to remove the sitting governor in the state, Udom Emmanuel of the PDP.
He said there was no truth in the speculation.
“That is totally false and no truth in such assertion. It is a matter of crying wolf. In fact, if there is someone who is intolerant to the opposition, anybody desirous of not allowing the citizens to find their political bearing, it is the intolerant government in Akwa Ibom State.
“This is a government that does not even allow opposition candidates in the APC to erect billboards in the state. It is the PDP government in Akwa Ibom that is using the apparatus of government against the APC and we shall resist it.
“All the political actors then who made the PDP have all left and 90 per cent are now in the APC. These were the people who usually make things happen.
“So do I need to tell you that there is no way PDP can win in Akwa Ibom. They don’t even have the men and resources. The only thing they have is the money that the governor is throwing around,” he said.
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