A’Ibom LGA elections: How Eno disgraced Akpabio

The local government area elections in Akwa Ibom State have come and gone; the scars the elections left will linger on, WRITES TONY NYONG

The elections cannot be described as a farce as voting took place in some areas, while in others, election materials or ballots were not available.

Materials for the chairmanship candidates reached some voting centres, while the materials for the councillorship candidates were hardly seen anywhere for voting.

The election did not take place in most centres as materials did not arrive at the remote parts of the urban. There were no ballots also, so to speak.

In Uyo, the state capital where the secretary to the state government comes from, materials did not get to almost all the units in Ward 9.

At the end of the election, the People’s Democratic Party won in all 31 local government areas.

In Essien Uduim, things, however, took a funny twist a few hours later when news filtered in, while the PDP successful candidates in the area were in high spirits of jubilation, the state governor decided to dash the Senate President Godswill Akpabio Essien Udim Local Government Area for his future political interest.

Although the Akwa Ibom State Independent Electoral Commission official had earlier in the local government collation centre announced victory for PDP, the declaration was later reversed by the hierarchy of the commission’s headquarters in Uyo, in favour of the APC, putting the election credibility into question.

Akwa Ibom State Governor Umo Eno and the PDP leaders in the state gave the APC Essien Uduim Local Government Area because of Godswill Akpabio and the 2027 interest of the governor.

The PDP political leader in Essien Uduim, Chief Michael Afangideh, who was quick to cry out was immediately compensated.

Youths in the Essien Udim LGA who were on the rampage, barricading the major highway Sunday after the election due to the event, were given financial inducement after the governor had invited critical stakeholders in the area to Government House, urging the protesting citizens to go back and douse the tension with the sum of N20 million (twenty million naira).

It was revealed that at the meeting Eno pleaded with the aggrieved PDP members to let Essien Uduim be given to Akpabio as a mark of respect to his office as senate president, a gesture the senate president quickly reached out to the governor and appreciated.

Speaking on the floor of the Senate last Thursday, Jibrin Barau, Deputy Senate President, said Nigerians were surprised that APC won the election in the Local Government of the Senate President unknown to him that trouble was brewing in the area.

Apart from disaffection in Essien Udim where Akpabio hails, there were also reactions in some other parts of the LGA as many see the horse trading as a joke taken too far.

The mixed feelings are coming from both sides of the two parties, a situation political fans say is pregnant with meaning and an index of political manoeuvring.

Afangideh, who was the first to condemn and describe what many agree was a bad transaction is now being accused of using his influence to corner appointments for both his wife and son, whom the governor has compensated with ‘Personal Assistants’ to the governor on Domestic Matters and ‘Personal Assistant’ to the governor on Protocol, respectively.

The PDP candidates, who have also been given appointments as ‘Special Assistants’ and ‘Personal Assistants’ to make up for the positions taken from them, are having difficulty reconciling the situation with supporters.

A press release issued and signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Prince Enobong Uwah, dated 9 October 2024, directed all the PDP candidates the governor had swapped their positions to pick their appointment letters from his office in Uyo.

A source disclosed that ‘back home the candidates are not finding it easy with their loyalists and supporters,’ a situation many have said is a bad antecedent.

More than these, most other politicians have come out to say the governor should have conceded the Local Government to Senator Akpabio without sacrificing the political future of the young men who spent time and resources to campaign. Loyalists are now also feeling betrayed.

Others say the governor only wanted to show Senator Akpabio that he could win him in his Ward and Local Government and that the idea of conceding must have come like an afterthought.

But the ones miffed with the whole arrangement and with very strong feelings are simply concluding that the governor has humiliated the senate president with the previous outcome of the election before the horse-trading.