The Supervisor for Communications and Re-orientation in the administration of Governor Udom Emmanuel in Akwa Ibom state, Mr. Eric Ekwere has noted that those who defected from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the build-up to the Supreme Court judgment that validated Governor Emmanuel’s election misfired. He disclosed this while speaking with DAILY POST’s Ali Adoyi on fall-outs from the apex court pronouncement.
Excerpts:
With Udom Emmanuel’s election finally affirmed, what do you think becomes of erstwhile PDP chieftains who defected to the APC?
Well, that was a case of hasty decision. In politics, sometimes one is bound to misfire and their defection to me is an act of misfiring. You know the media fireworks that went round in Akwa Ibom State as at the time of the tribunal and the subsequent judgment at the appeal court was way too confusing to most people. But I thank God who in His own wisdom has the final say in the affairs of men and wills power to who He so pleases. Those defectors are still PDP members in their hearts of heart.
Do you see the governor extending a hand of fellowship to Umana Okon Umana and those in his camp?
If His Excellency doesn’t, that means he (Udom Emmanuel) is still in the era of politicking; but as he has always said, the government had long commenced, “come let us build together. Akwa Ibom needs you”. That message is for every son and daughter of the state who means well for the state and that was why immediately His Excellency’s victory was affirmed last night, the first set of people that ran to congratulate him at the government house were the broom carriers. Obong Umana Okon Umana and those in his camp are equally from Akwa Ibom State. His Excellency, Mr. Udom Emmanuel had long extended a hand of fellowship to everyone, it is left for them to accept it. We are all Akwa Ibomites.
Some believe Governor Emmanuel to be a political lightweight. How does he intend to dominate Akwa Ibom politics now that he is sure of remaining Governor in the next three and half years?
How can you call someone who contested the primaries of our party, the PDP and won convincingly a political lightweight? A man who defeated those who call him a political lightweight in a keenly contested general election can’t be branded as being a lightweight. Just like Goliath underrated David; what befell Goliath is what we are seeing in Akwa Ibom State today. Wherever Mr. Udom Emmanuel steps into, the crowd that welcomes him speaks volume. Political elders/leaders, women group, the youths, even children accept our Governor. All he needs to keep doing is for him to remain our Governor. There is no political lightweight in politics.
How true is the rumour that Udom Emmanuel has already fallen out with his predecessor and benefactor, Senator Godswill Akpabio, to the extent that it is said that he wanted the Governor’s election to be nullified?
Let me laugh at that a little bit. His Excellency, the Senate Minority Leader, Chief Godswill Akpabio, despite his very busy schedule, made it to the court room last night to show support and solidarity to a man he handed over the mantle of leadership to. Akpabio and Udom Emmanuel are more like best of pals which nothing can come in between. All the rumored friction you read on the Internet about them are just the devices of the naysayers which has come to naught.
Do you see the Governor defecting to the APC any time soon?
Defect to APC? Which APC? We don’t know APC to be in existence because they have their own bigger problems to deal with. If Mr. Udom Emmanuel wanted to defect, that should have been before the Supreme Court’s ruling. But as for now, Akwa Ibom State is firmly PDP. Chief Oyegun, the National Chairman cries out everyday that the party does not have money hence their failed effort to snatch the oil rich Akwa Ibom and Rivers States. Mr. President’s body language (going by their term) doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the APC. Why then will a judiciary and people confirmed governor with a Divine Mandate think of such move. Such talk ends only in dream land. I will advise those rumor mangers to wake up. Akwa Ibom like I said, is firmly PDP.
Does this ruling by the Supreme Court put paid to the supposition even in Akwa Ibom that the nation’s judiciary is under the President Muhammadu Buhari APC-led Federal Government?
If they say the judiciary is under President Buhari and the same President Buhari said the judiciary is his headache, which should we believe? The hearsay or the man himself? I will say the nation’s judiciary is on the President’s head and not under him and as such, he should thread with caution since the judiciary is also an arm of government.
Had it been the apex court ordered another election, do you think Udom Emmanuel would have defeated the APC candidate in a free and fair contest that would have followed?
The last election that was conducted in Akwa Ibom State and contested in court was free and fair and Mr. Udom Emmanuel through the PDP won convincingly. Udom Emmanuel will always defeat the APC in any free and fair contest.
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