Essien Udim: Gov Eno Offers Appointments To PDP Candidates
Pastor Umo Eno, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, has offered contract and appointments to candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party in Essien Udim who contested last Saturday’s local government election.
The Governor met with the Chairmanship candidate, the Vice Chairmanship candidate and councillorship candidates in Government House, Uyo on Wednesday.
While the Chairman candidate, Engr Enobong Patrick was offered a contract, the Vice Chairmanship candidate is to be appointed as Special Assistant (SA) to the Governor. 7 councillorship candidates whose victories were traded off to APC are to be appointed Personal Assistants (PA) to the Governor.
TheMail learnt on good authority that the meeting was also attended by the governor’s kitchen cabinet members such as the Secretary to State Government, Prince Enobong Uwah, Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Frank Archibong, and the state government’s favourite contractor, Engr. Uwem Okoko of Hensek Integrated Services.
During the meeting, case was also made for the chairmanship candidate, Engr. Enobong Patrick to be given an appointment, possibly as Commissioner or Board Chairman in addition to the contract award. The governor however failed to make a promise to that effect, but instead said he will give a thought to it.
This move by the governor is an effort to placate the PDP stakeholders and faithful in the local government who feel humiliated and betrayed by him for trading off their victory to APC in order to sustain his current sizzling political romance with the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
The PDP candidates had a clean sweep of the election as was announced on Saturday evening by the Returning Officer sent to the local government by Akwa Ibom State Independent Electoral Commission (AKSIEC)
According to the result announced by the Returning Officer, Prof. Inyang Ating, the PDP chairmanship candidate scored 55,612 votes while the APC candidate could only garner a paltry 686 votes.
But a political abracadabra happened overnight where the governor is said to have reached an understanding with the senate president to concede the local government area to him in order to avoid him feeling embarrassed in the comity of top politicians in Abuja. Akpabio is said to have demanded concessions in 4 other Local Government Areas in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District. This, we learnt was stoutly rejected by those in the governor’s team.
To the shock of many followers of the election and the consternation of the Essien Udim PDP faithful who had worked assiduously for their victory, AKISIEC, on Sunday morning, announced the APC candidate, Hon. Ntiedo Usoro as the winner of the election. In the horse-trading, the governor is said to have thrown the party in the LGA and its candidates under bus. 7 councillorship seats were traded off to the APC while PDP was given 6 seats.
In a press conference on Monday by AKISIEC, the APC candidate who had earlier scored 686 votes was to have amassed 51,751 votes while the PDP candidate’s votes reduced from 55,612 to 22,799.
In a more dramatic fashion, the Executive Chairman of AKISIEC, Elder Aniedi Ikoiwak, during the press briefing held at AKISIEC Headquarters, Uyo, disowned the Returning Officer who announced the PDP candidate as winner.
“The said Professor Ating was not appointed by us. I wonder why he announced results he was not assigned to do so. I later learnt from credible source that the drama was staged in Ewet Housing Estate, Uyo, An unidentified man was conscripted to read the purported result”, the AKISIEC boss said while reacting to the viral video where Prof. Ating announced the Essien Udim chairmanship result.
This paper understands that since then, Prof. Ating’s life has been under threat as he has gone into hiding. TheMail Newspaper learnt that men from a security agency in the state were sent to go after him and retrieve the duplicate copy of the result sheet.
According to information at our disposal, doors of his house in his hometown were broken down by the security agents earlier this week while in search of him. Efforts to retrieve the duplicate of the result sheet from the Professor of Medical Sciences, according to our findings, is to kill every evidence of electoral fraud in case the PDP candidate decides to drag the matter to election petition tribunal.
Meanwhile, this paper understands that the governor had earlier this week sent emissaries to Chief Michael Afangideh in an effort to pacify the “political Iroko” who is said to have been livid and humiliated by the governor’s action.
The PDP chairmanship candidate, Engr. Patrick was Chief Afangideh’s choice. One of our sources told our reporter that Chief Afangideh feels the governor doesn’t have enough regards for his age and pedigree, reason he was not even hinted about the political trade-off.
“Chief Afangideh feels such would not have happened if Udom Emmanuel was governor as he (Udom) always involved him in key decisions that he used to take concerning Essien Udim. Chief feels no past governor of the state would have so disrespected him”, our source said.
