Northern mercenaries hired by some Akwa Ibom governorship aspirants to carry placards in Abuja As part of a grand design to truncate the popular will in Akwa Ibom State, some ill-advised party stalwarts of the Peoples Democratic Party, who had earlier addressed a press conference in Uyo, went a step further and rented an Abuja crowd to protest against the party leadership in Abuja. Following their press conference in Uyo, Monday, in which they talked down on youths and took issues with Governor Akpabio over his assertion that the future belonged to youths they followed that up with hiring of Abuja indigenes to protest in Abuja. Commenting on the matter, the State Chairman of the Party, Chief Paul Ekpo said it was curious that an Akwa Ibom matter, which had never elicited any form of protest in Akwa Ibom was witnessing Abuja residents carrying placards and demonstrating against a party leadership elected in Akwa Ibom State. He maintained that on Monday those who addressed the press and spoke against the leadership of the party came to the party secretariat in Uyo for a consultation and mentioned those who came to include Obong Umana Umana, former SSG; Otuekong Don Etiebet, a Board of Trustees member and many others. Chief Ekpo maintained that on that occasion, they did not betray any grievance against the party leadership and described as unfortunate and strange the recourse to asking Abuja indigenes to change the course of history of Akwa Ibom State. He posited that the party had an internal mechanism for addressing grievances and if any party member had any problem in Akwa Ibom he or she should have exploited same and not come to Abuja and hire an admixture of miscreants and rabble rousers to dent the image of the party before a global audience. He further stated the architect of what he described as a show of shame were selfish politicians who placed their self-interests above the common good of the party and should be sanctioned for embarrassing the party. In a separate comment, Senator Anietie Okon said the aggrieved stalwarts acted out of desperation knowing that they were very unpopular in Akwa Ibom State and could not have been able to muster any kind of protest without the ire of the masses. He stated that democracy was localized in geopolitical spheres and you cannot come to Abuja to protest about the leadership of the party in Akwa Ibom State. He said the entire charade was reminiscent of the kind of crowd renting the country used to witness during the Abacha years. On his part, member board of trustees of the party, Senator Emmanuel Ibok Essien who described the dissident elders as political desperadoes cautioned them to stop fanning embers of discord among party faithfuls and should show example by joining hands with the leadership of the party in the state. -- Aniekan Umanah Hon. Commissioner for Information and Communications Akwa Ibom State - Nigeria.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 13:45:08 +0000
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