Call Ita Enang To Order, Akwa Ibom Elders Write Buhari

By Umoh-Obong Kingsley

President Muhammadu Buhari

 Elders in Akwa Ibom State, under the aegis of Elders of the Divine Mandate, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to call his Senior Special Assistant on Legislative Matters in the National Assembly, Senator Ita Enang, to order following the incessant and unwarranted insults and lies he has meted on the Executive Governor of the State in the recent times.

The group, in an open letter to the President, and made available to newsmen, expressed shock and deep consternation over Sen. Ita Enang’s unwholesome attitude against Governor Udom Emmanuel, describing the insults as being totally vile and laden with malicious intent, which the senator, in an undisguised manner, said he speaks on behalf of the Presidency.

Barr Ita Enang

The letter, jointly signed by Air Commodore Idongest Nkanga (Rtd), Senators Anietie Okon, Emmanuel Ibokessien, Effiong Bob, Rt. Hon. Ndueso Essien, Rt. Hon. Dr. Esio Oquong-Udoh, Chief Okon Essang, Obong Paul Ekpo and Engr. (Obong) Offiong Akpabio, dated April 2, 2016, reads: “We the Elders of the Divine Mandate have watched with utter shock and deep consternation, he unwarranted insults and lies your Senior Special Assistant on Legislative Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, has been launching against the Governor of our dear State our Leader, His Excellency, Governor Udom Emmanuel. These insults have been totally vile and laden with malicious intent and the Senator usually states in an undisguised manner, that he speaks on behalf of Presidency.

“The sad part of this all is that the Senator, one of your Principal Aides, lacks a key ingredient of circumspection and has failed to realise that such lies should not be put out as conventional wisdom and given wings to fly, and that by engaging in such activities, he has brought the exalted office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria into the fray of local politics and cause people to wonder if he is speaking on behalf of the Presidency which he always forcefully asserts, which we know, is not the case here.

“Mr. President, it may interest you to know that there are no areas even those that border on the realms of privacy, no issues, no matter how galling, that the Senator has not come out with intellectually confounding blackmail and propaganda all aimed at insulting the office of the Governor of the State and the person of His Excellency, Mr. Udom Emmanuel. Whenever the Senator comes to Akwa Ibom State, he would appear on a local radio station and heap insults dripping with disdain, lies and malice on the Governor. He would speak in a tone and cadence that even some members of your party have had moments to call us and apologise for the shocking and morally objectionable tirade the Senator has been launching on the person and office of the Governor of the State.

“We find it beneath and totally unseemly for an individual who is a Principal Aide of the President of the Federal Republic to engage in these sorts of pedestrian reasoning and thoughts. We find it embarrassing for a Presidential Aide to advertise such ignorance and crass appeal to base instincts simple because he wants to play to the gallery and spit all sorts of inanities and obtuse rants.”

It could be recalled that Senator Ita Enang had recently granted interview to the Planet Radio, a local radio station in Akwa Ibom State, where he was quoted to have accused Governor Udom Emmanuel of not paying workers’ salaries, a statement found to be false.

Senator Ita Enang, during his recent visit to Governor Udom Emmanuel, congratulated him and openly confessed that the Governor’s election and Supreme Court victory was indeed a Divine enterprise and told the Governor that “We fought you hard and dirty,” to which Governor Emmanuel smiled and told him ‘all that was now in the past and that we should all work together to deliver superior service to the people of Akwa Ibom State.’

“Mr. President, the 2015 gubernatorial elections had been won and lost and we think the narrow resort to political posturing by Senator Ita Enang, while claiming to be speaking on behalf of the Presidency, should give way to robust engagements on how to move our nation and state forward.

“We would have ignored Sen. Ita Enang’s insult-laden rants and dismiss him for his rabble-rouser qualities and tendencies, but as one of your aides, and since he always claim to be speaking the mind, the voice and interpreting the body language of the President, we felt we needed to bring this odious behaviour to your attention.

“You are the leader of our nation and we salute the manner you have stayed above the fray of local politics, the highly commendable stance you took to allow the Principle of Separation of Powers and the philosophy of Checks and Balance, deepen our political culture and engagement. We refuse to believe the lies of Senator Ita Enang that he speaks on your behalf.

“We wish to please urge you to call him to order and advise him to face his job squarely, pay attention to details and not continue to embarrass the Presidency as he did with the recent budget presentation that he so royally bungled, an act that embarrassed you and the entire nation.

“The good people of Akwa Ibom State are fed up with his antics. Governor Udom Emmanuel is the duly elected Governor of our state, he enjoys our unflinching support and unalloyed confidence and we will ride with him. He has demonstrated in his short ten months that the choice we made in him as our Governor was God’s choice. He has engendered a new thinking in our State and inspired our people to rise up (dakkada) and claim the faith of greatness, he has taken bold steps to diversify the economy. He has demystified governance and demonstrated that we are all accountable to the people, who hired us to work for them. The people are with him and he enjoys their robust support,” the letter further reads.

NASIRU EL' RUFAI: AN ACCIDENT WAITING TO HAPPEN

By Osondu Ahirika

Kaduna State, Nigeria's hotbed of religious riots, extremism and fundamentalism is boiling after 8 years of absolute amity under former Governor Ahmed Markarafi. A succession of Governors beginning with his successor former Vice President Namadi Sambo, who was succeeded by Patrick Yakowa, who died in office to pave way for Mukthar Yero collectively, bequeathed relative stability to the State. 
All that is spinning on a reverse under the current Governor, Mallam Nasiru El'Rufai. After starting on a bright note by restoring Local Government autonomy and repealing joint accounts with the state, Rufai has since headed the wrong way. Under his watch, the Nigerian Army massacred over 1000 shite muslims(Rufai is Sunni Muslim) and he did not raise a voice against it.
Apparently riding on the alleged impunity with which the Shites conducted themselves in Kaduna State with their detained leader Sheik Ibrahim Yaqoub El Zakzaky as a caliph, Rufai moved to clampdown on religious freedom in the state. But history and empirical analysis of his proposed edict reveals that, the ultimate target is to undermine the practice of the christian faith in the State. The bill which seeks to regulate evangelism and licence preachers before they can preach in the State is being resisted by the Christian Association of Nigeria and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, while the Jama’atu Nasril Islam, JNI, is maintaining studied silence. Of course, CAN and PFN know that the Bill in the works, proposing to ban crusades and outdoor preaching, or use of public address systems, licence churches or preachers before they can operate, is targeted at them.

 Kaduna has a long dozzier of religious violence. Maitatsine riots in 1983; the riots after the Kafanchan incidence of 1987, the 2000 riots against the introduction of Sharia, and the 2002 riots among others like Zangon Kataf which also had religious undertones. Methink, the wise way forward is for Rufai to steer clear of stirring religious disaffection under any guise. But his well known obstinacy, defiance and pride, will nudge him on, to ignore overwhelming public opinion, that he rescind his commitment to having the bill passed.
Rufai's popularity rating has gone so low that, Nigerians were celebrating the trending news alleging that, his deputy governor, Architect Bala Bantex slapped him. Some have dubbed it, 'The slap of God, even when Bantex has come out to describe it as 'totally untrue.' In a press statement issued on Sunday, March 28, the Deputy Governor denied ever doing any such thing. In part the statement reads: 
“We should reject shrill cries that often betray prejudice and be firm that we must be guided by logic and history. For all that Kaduna State has suffered from religious violence, the many lives lost and the divided neighborhoods that have sprung up as a result, it seems that some people have forgotten.” If you ask me, although he denied any face-off with his boss, and reaffirmed the vitality and strength of their relationship, Bantex, in those lines afforestated, has made the point for who has ears to hear, including his boss, the Kaduna State House of Assembly and the people of all faiths in the state. Guided as he pleads, by 'history and logic', Rufai should let sleeping dogs lie. This outrageous bill contravenes the constitutionally guaranteed rights of all citizens to practice their faith without molestation.

Meanwhile, a popular prophet, Dr Chris Okafor has asked him to withdraw the bill or face the wrath of God. Okafor, known for his predictions in the country, said the governor had an ultimatum to revert the bill and failure to do same may yet fetch him serious consequences. Another fiery Christian leader, Apostle Johnson Suleiman, The Senior Pastor of Omega Fire Ministries (OFM), has passed a decree of death on the Kaduna state Governor if he fails to revoke the anti preaching bill.
Preaching in his church on March 27th, Suleiman said,"I am not just running my mouth. In the 1999 constitution, Chapter 4, under the fundamental human rights, section 38 says that everyone has a freedom of thought, conscience and opinion and it says they are very free to exercise their religion either in a community, in public or or in private. Public means put your speakers anywhere. So the man is not just going against the scripture. He is going against the nation. He is going against the constitution and he says because he did it in Abuja, nothing happened. He entered a christian community in Kaduna and he says he will destroy life. He will die!"he said.

Interestingly he described El Rufai as, "The Herod of Kaduna." Herod you will remember, gave an edict that all new born babes be put to the sword so he may have the new born king and baby Jesus killed. He also had John the baptist, jailed and put to death for preaching against his takeover of his brothers wife. In my view, Herod is an understating of Rufai's activity. This act of his is not unprecedented.
In scriptures, we had in Acts 5:28, where Peter and the other Apostles were paraded before the authourities, the query was, "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said. "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood."
(See Acts 5:28). To that edict,( Acts 5:29) - Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!"
In countries like Myanmar, Burma, North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Laos, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Maldives, Somalia, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, among others, Governments have enacted decrees to outlaw and criminalize profession of faith in Jesus Christ. Every effort and force is applied to legislate christian religious knowledge out of the school curriculum in so many nation states. Billions are spent to distort the story off his birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection through itinerant literature and sponsored movies. The question the world has failed to ask or answer is: why so much fear of the gospel of Jesus christ? Why is so much might poured into the fight to keep Jesus out of the hearts of men and shut their mouth. The bitter truth they have to swallow is, even when reggae eventually gets stopped, nobody can stop the Goodnews of love, Peace, righteousness, social justice, equity, fairness and salvation as espoused by Jesus Christ. 
El' Rufai must be told in clear unmistaken terms, that his bill is dead on arrival. The Church will reserve for him the same answer Peter gave the Council which reverberates through all ages against very dangerous odds. He has led a provocative history of controversies since he happened in Public office. With a vociferous appetite for bravado and muscle flexing, he has earned the sobriquet, Mr Bulldozer for his demolition of structures in Abuja as the FCT Minister, and Hell Rufai for his radicalism and attacks on Presidents Yar'adua and Goodluck Jonathan. But this is a different ball game and I concur with Apostle Suleiman that, it is time to test power.

The irony is, Rufai is an accident waiting to happen to Kaduna State in particular and Nigeria in general. Reminds me of the fact that he wrote a memoir titled, The Accidental Public Servant. A story of Nigeria, and its power game as told by him. In it, Nasir El-Rufai admits he rose to the top ranks of Nigeria's political
hierarchy by accident, serving first as the privatization czar at the Bureau for
Public Enterprises and then as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja under former President Olesegun Obasanjo. 
Reflecting on how to save Nigeria from destruction in that book, its shocking that El Rufai is now activating a time bom that could actually spell doom for the beleaguered nation. I join the college of those warning him to beware, lest he crashes out of Nigeria's power organogram by Accident just the way he came in. I also urge President Muhammadu Buhari to wade in and protect the Constitution of the Federal Republic from the breach El Raufai is stoking with his experimental bill. Keeping quiet is complicity and bodes evil or nigeria.

AKSG NEW MODEL FOR PAYMENT OF COMPENSATION , A NARRATIVE OF TRANSPARENCY

By Emmanuel Nicholas 
For Akwa Ibom State to take its rightful place and be more relevant in today's world, it requires bold, inspiring and visionary leadership, devoid of corruption and cronyism, and Governor Udom Emmanuel is an epitome of such leadership. Governor Udom Emmanuel represents honesty and trustworthiness. He is scrupulous, conscientious, high-principled, selfless, content, anti-corruption, upright, upstanding, high-minded, right-minded, good, virtuous, just, noble, respectable, decent and all above prudent. With Governor Udom, Akwa Ibom people have elected a leader who is not corrupt, and who places the people over his personal needs. In this world, to be competitive in all aspects, it demands radical socio-economic transformation and the Akwa Ibom Governor has vast knowledge in financial matters will usher in the economic change. 

Governor Udom with Wife

Udom is a leader that has good vision for the state. He has set standards for honesty and with him, mismanagement of the state's resources, cronyism and recklessness in governance will be grossly minimised if not eradicated. In leadership, your acolytes greatly influence your output. The people you work with should share same philosophy with you and be poised to interpret your vision statements into realities. Hon Ephraim Akparawa Inyang-eyen is one of the Governor’s team members whose philosophy synchronises with that of his boss. He is confident, assertive, innovative and committed to promoting and defending the interest of the Udom Emmanuel Government and that of the people. 
Hon Ephraim Inyang considers that the people's interest and development must be placed above our politics. Above all, he is prepared to seek solutions from within, and adopt the philosophies and practices that will deal with the various challenges that the State faces, and develop ideas to propel our State towards the best that it deserves for the better. Hon Inyang-Eyen operates an open policy that has integrity in its actions and is really good at managing its information. These are the foundations upon which government accountability is built and corruption is reduced. 

Mr Ephraim Inyang with A Foreign Contractor

To be clear, integrity in Ephraim’s context means that an open government follows the rule of law and that it works to establish a culture of integrity amongst its representatives and employees. This integrity pervades all aspects of an open government which reduces corruption and creates internal accountability, where government holds itself accountable. The last have not been heard about the payment of compensation to properties owners as the State takes on road construction projects. Across the country, the process of payment of compensation to property owners is usually marred with a lot of inconsistencies. Most times, some persons will collaborate with political office holders to induce the private valuer to inflate the price sum of each of the property valued. During payment to the beneficiaries, cheque are issued to owners without them having the privilege to see the actual sum that is accruable to each of them as the voucher always turns upside down and only the section of beneficiary signatures will be the only part that will be exposed to the beneficiary. Most times, the compensations are received by impostors and when true owners turn up, it will be discovered that his or her benefits has been collected by someone else. This will make the government sometimes pay more than one beneficiary for one property. When some property owners whose benefits are collected by impostors cannot get their Payment, it leads to an endless cycle of litigation as it prevent government and contractors from taking their right of way , hence delaying government projects from taking off . The metric of transparency in the payment of compensation has been changed, as Governor Udom Emmanuel has invoked new methodology in the process and procedure of payment. First a private valuer will value the property. Thereafter, the government valuer also goes in to value the properties and then submits their values before the government. Both teams will compare the submission and reach a compromise of the sums for each property. After both team’s assessment , a private finance consultant is engaged to effect the payment to eliminate all forms of malpractice by any official. Before each beneficiary is paid, he or she will present an Identity Card and there must a witness from the community to identify that truly she or he is the owner of the properties in front of the cameras.The beneficiary will also present original copies of the property documents, with two copies of passport photographs In the case of a family property, a "will" will, be presented to the consultant. In the absence of the will, the family will collectively sign the power of attorney, granting the name of one of them to be written on the cheque to avoid future opposition and litigation. After these processes, the cheque will be issued to the beneficiary and in 24 hours after paying in the cheque, government will release funds into their individual accounts. After receiving the compensation, the government will take its right of way for contractors to commence work on the project. 
On Monday 12 October , the Akwa Ibom State Government commenced the payment of compensation on the affected property in the ongoing urbanization of Eket Town , followed by payment of compensation to Tropicana unground water channelization, Ikot Udom Road Project in Ibiono Local Government , Awa Iman and Mkpok villages in Onna LGA Flagging off the programme, the Commissioner for Works,Mr Ephraim Inyang-Enyen informed the beneficiary that government of Deacon Udom Emmanuel will not condone with any act of fraudulence and has determined to keep to his promise of completion of all projects within a stipulated time frame. He said government decision to institute a new direction for payment was to guide against act capable of truncating the whole deal, "a situation where someone own a property and another man, get compensation will not be exercised again. We are effecting this payment so that the contract for the Remodelling project can be expedite by the contractors”. He said government had allowed owners of property in the affected area to hire their valuer but take charge of consultant who carry out the payment. This, according to the Commissioner was to ensure probity and accountability in the system. " every owner of property must show up with a witness, it could be a lawyer, valuer who must sign the cheque before payment is done. " 
He said the development will help eliminate the bottleneck associated with compensation. Hon Ephraim assured that Udom Emmanuel’s administration was committed to providing quality and meaningful projects to the people of the State. He called on the people to cooperate with government to enable him succeed, saying the mandate freely given him by the people was to deliver dividends of democracy to the people and not to give excuse. He said, for easy identification and payment, the ministry chose to drove down to the villages involved and ensure that affected property owners are identify in order to avoid double standard and omission. He said, payment of compensation to the affected owners will be carried out in two parts, which according to him is, through cheque and cash,
 "Those who have structures will receive cheque while those with tombstone and other economic trees will receive instant cash so as to ease the exercise”. Mr Ephraim Inyang has pleaded with the community leaders and other major stakeholders to cooperate with the ministry to carry out the exercise effectively. He asked everyone affected to present their identity card and two recent passport photograph for easy identification and payment. 
Despite the amount, the Commissioner also demand property owners to appear with witness and signed alongside. He said it was barbaric and fraudulence for people to claim other people's property, warning the community to desist from such. In one of those occasions, the Chairman, Ibiaku Ikot Oku village Council, Mr. Nkereuwem Daniel Robert commended the state government for coming to the aid of Ikot Udom and other communities that share the road, he said the people of the area has been under bandage due to inaccessible road network. He particularly commended Governor Udom Emmanuel for remembering the people of the area in his development agenda. 
The village head of Mkpok, Eteidung Ekerete Thompson Ufot lauded Governor Udom Emmanuel's development plan for the area and pledged the people's support for the government. It would be recalled that payments of compensation have earlier been effected in Eket, Uyo and Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area. 
The Commissioner stated that to ensure transparency in the on going payment of compensation, the government has employed the service of a finance consultant different from the Estate Valuer who valued the properties to handle the payment. He said the arrangement allows the estate valuer, the construction company, the finance consultant & government to witness every payment & is properly documented. For every leadership to have positive effect on the people, there must be integration of best practices to outplay the mistakes of the past. 
The synergy of Governor Udom Emmanuel and his Commissioner of Works is to synchronise qualitative and transparent leadership to sustain higher development strides in Akwa Ibom State , devoid of corruption but laden with transparency in the entire process of project execution and implementation

Press Release: Senator Akpabio Does Not Own Lagos Lekki Gardens

Senator Godswill Akpabio

Press Release:
Senator Akpabio does not own Lagos Lekki Gardens

The attention of the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio has been drawn to a malicious twitter “flash” by Sahara Reporters which claimed that the former Governor of Akwa Ibom State “has been linked to the ownership of Lagos Lekki Gardens where 31 died in a collapsed bld.”

We want to state categorically that Senator Akpabio is not the owner of Lagos Lekki Gardens nor has he any form of relationship whatsoever with the said company.
While we condole with the families of those who lost their loved ones in the unfortunate building collapse, we are saddened that Sahara Reporters could chose to play politics with such a tragic incident as the death of Nigerians and chose to drag in the name of Senator Akpabio.
This mischief is happening at a time the owners of Lagos Lekki Gardens have been arraigned before a competent court of law for all Nigerians to see.
It is not beyond the investigative capabilities of Sahara Reporters to find out from the authorities of the Lagos State Government and the Corporate Affairs Commission if they still doubt the ownership of the Lagos Lekki Gardens that one petitioner against Senator Akpabio claims controls 27 estates within Lagos. We condemn this politically-motivated speculation linking Senator Akpabio to the ownership of Lagos Lekki Gardens.
This is one in a series of falsehood that Sahara Reporters has fabricated against the Senate Minority Leader. Recall the national uproar which followed a similar concoction on December 10, 2015 when Sahara Reporters “authoritatively confirmed” that Senator Akpabio had been sacked from the Senate by an Appeal Court which had not even delivered its judgment at the time of the publication. It turned out to be a hoax when the election of the Senator was upheld the following day by the Appeal Court.
We condemn this attempt by Sahara Reporters to tarnish the image of a public officer and demand an unreserved apology for this false and malicious publication. We advice the promoters of Sahara Reporters to jettison mischief, falsehood and fabrication and uphold the fine journalism tradition of objectivity, truth and fairness.
Anietie Ekong
Special Assistant on Media to the
Senate Minority Leader

Akwa Ibom Rerun Elections: APC Saw the Future

APC See The Future

 The rerun elections to fill seats in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly have come and gone; with the PDP, as usual, pummeling their raucous opponents - APC, and other parties; recording victory by a broad margin. On monitoring programmes of the parties in the lead up to the polls, the body language of APC suggested they had foreseen the heavy defeat.

While PDP were busy organizing mega rallies, consulting far and wide, and their candidates working hard to garner popularity amongst the electorates – not taking for granted favour they already enjoyed in their respective constituencies – APC were only found behind worthless and commonly spurious articles on print and social media. Still their efforts at such publicity was as weak as can be. For example, an attempt to make noise about Umana Umana’s return to the state, as if that would serve as a boost, was immediately dealt with by a public who have by now refused to burden their ears and eyes with APC messages.

The APC are far better at the publicity tool of propaganda than at winning elections; their history of election failure in Akwa Ibom seems to indicate. In the last Governorship elections and in the rerun that just held, Akwa Ibom gave at least 90% of their votes to PDP, while the APC took several bouts of stern rebuke from leading individuals in the society for an imposing volume of calumny that came from them. While such capabilities worked for them at the last presidential elections, it failed and still fails them in Akwa Ibom. Right now, they constitute a good example for the belief that one can be popular and never successful. This time again, the APC seemed to focus on their strongest capability, leaving the PDP to claim easy won victory.

As could be observed before polls, not one billboard carried an APC message. It made one wonder if truly they had run out of money or maybe they had run out of confidence. Or maybe they had imagined to rig the elections but did not sense an enabling environment or backing from their national leadership.

The assumption of sensing no backing from their national headship could be the first accurate explanation for APC’s cold feet. Architect Otu Ita Toyo, one of their most influential leaders in the state, wrote a lamentation on the eve of the elections; and their primary media arm, APC news alert reposted it in a mutinous non-oral protest;

“We have all been through a lot..... it is known that from the National Assembly to the anti corruption fight the APC is yet to give a coordinated response nationally. Truth be told, we have to overhaul of (corrected to ‘or’) risk giving second wind to the PDP who believe that the end justifies the means.”
And then he accused Umana Okon Umana, for whom many of them forfeited their nobility, respect and dignity to support in the 2015 elections, of bandoning other party objective having failed at his’;
“Without UOU there was scant energy in the APC. UOU is at this time engaged in another level of struggle and there is a limit to what one man with no external support can do.”
He then attempted to make a case against what has become fashionable impulse among rank and file of the party; rebelling against their leadership, trying to whip up some more patience with the party structure.
“We have not felt the essential mobilization from the party leaders and exco... saving a few like the Itas... I have no doubt that we can and should recover but only if we get deadwoods out of the way. I am persuaded that the Exco will do the right thing to save the party in the state”.
APC members are also Nigerians, and it is common knowledge that a true blooded Nigerian cannot successfully be retained in deception, especially those from the Middle Belt and Southward. This is why most Nigerians can foresee mass defection from the APC in the nearest future. Arch Toyo also agreed with this mindset here:
“Finally I hear that 4 years is a long time to stay irrelevant. Well it's not just 4 years, for some people 17 and counting. They deserve a break. But we won't get that break by matching violence or rebelling against our platform. This is the moment for clear headed patriotism like Patty is advocating. Only we must advocate for engagement, tools and organised party organ. We must keep the last of our optimism. The grass on the other side is not greener for men of ideas. I know. I have been there.”

Suffice it to say that the fate of APC has been sealed, beginning with Akwa Ibom State. So dire it is that a common joke among people who witnessed the free and fair rerun elections both physically and following online, was about possible news headlines of APC backed newspapers by the following Monday. Everyone anticipated another grumble from them, implying that they can no longer be taken as seriously as before.

But why are things so awful for APC? Nothing far from their assumption that they could dupe clear-eyed Nigerians into supporting them, with ballyhoo defamation against everything that made sense. They attacked our sense of good judgment, for we gave them some attention – claiming to have some kind of ‘inside’ knowledge, they made themselves popular enough to rig the 2015 elections and get away with it. It was their worst mistake, for now they have the federal government and, 10 months into their administration, they are still toying with sensitive fibres of the nation’s health, governing the World’s biggest black nation and largest African economy with trial and error.

Their sins have begun to hunt them. In Akwa Ibom, where they never succeeded to win favour in the first place, being an APC supporter has become a thing of embarrassment, no thanks to a people-first philosophy of governance by successive PDP governments. A wide disparity between the performance of the Udom Emmanuel led administration - with severe paucity of funds - and that of President Muhammadu Buhari is a major contributor to their election woes and imminent collapse.

Meanwhile, the APC only went home with 10.9% of the total votes cast in the just concluded rerun elections in Akwa Ibom. That figure is certainly an ultra-generous gift from the Akwa Ibom people, as the they, APC did not even approach the elections expecting that much.

PDP CONFIRM DOMINANCE OVER APC & OTHERS WITH WIDE MARGIN RERUN ELECTION VICTORY

Akwa Ibom people, in last Saturdays rerun elections for House of Assembly seats confirmed beyond doubt their loyalty to the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, by giving over 90% of votes to return the candidates of the PDP to the hallowed chambers.

This figure which came from the re-run in Ikot Ekpene/Obot Akara, Etinan, Ibesikpo Asutan, Oron/Udung Uko and state constituency saw PDP sweeping a total of 52790 votes against APC’s 6461.

This figure follows the same trend witnessed in the last governorship elections where PDP polled 91% of total votes cast.

It appears the APC had foreseen the defeat and had failed to campaign in the affected constituencies.

The APC candidates who failed to put up a single poster and billboard in these constituencies, thereby confirming the assumption that Akwa Ibom is almost entirely PDP.

In Ikot Ekpene/Obot Akara, Prince Idongesit Ntekpere emerged winner as PDP scored 23,900 making up 90.51% of votes cast; APC scored 2428(9%), Accord 23(0.1%) and Labour party had 53(0.2%). In Etinan, Barrister Aniefiok Dennis got 85.68% of votes with PDP scoring 10,977; APC scored 1780(13.9%), Accord 26(0.2%) and Labour had 29 votes (0.23%). In Oron/Udung Uko, the day belonged to Honourable Effiong Bassey Okon of PDP, who scored 7,625 giving him 96% of total votes cast; the APC had 298(3.76%), Accord party 5(0.06%) and Labour party scored 8 votes (0.1%).

Former Speaker of the House of Assembly, Honourable Aniekan Uko of the PDP, who had been removed in February by a Court of Appeal judgment that favoured his petitioning APC opponent, received massive support from his people who gave him 83.8% of votes cast, scoring 10,288 as against a paltry 1955 (15.93%) for his APC rival, Gabriel Akpan. The Accord party scored 13(0.11%) and Labour Party had 19(0.15%).

The four successful PDP candidates will resume their parliamentarian duties after being sworn back into office at a date yet to be announced.