Leave Akpabio Out Of Ex-Gov Emmanuel’s Travails With EFCC — Senator Enang

A former special assistant to the president on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang has warned against dragging the name of Senate President Godswill Akpabio into the travail of immediate-past governor of Akwa Ibom, Udom Emmanuel with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

A group, Network Against Corruption and Trafficking had recently petitioned the EFCC where it accused the former Akwa Ibom governor of corruption and demanding the anti-graft agency to probe his era as Akwa Ibom State governor between 2015 and 2023.

Emmanuel, in the petition is being accused of alleged mismanagement of funds running into N700 billion and other cash diversions allegedly perpetrated under his watch.

However, tension has enveloped the polity over the petition which has polarized the state along sociopolitical and ethnic lines, with some blaming Senator Akpabio as the brain behind the ordeals of his estranged godson, Emmanuel.

Enang while speaking in Uyo, the state capital under the Progressives Conscience and Team Nigeria (PCTN), a group under the All Progressives Congress (APC) described the allegation as a ploy to distract the Senate President from delivering on his mandate to the people.

Senator Enang said, “With reference to the publications and discussions regarding alleged petition against the immediate-past governor, Deacon Udom Emmanuel to the EFCC, to account for his tenure in office and the attempt to deflect from the subject, searching in diversionary tactics for persons allegedly behind such, attempting in course to link the Senate President’s person or office thereto, we volunteer a brief intervention this:

“That from all interactions, there is nothing to link the Senate President or his office and associates with the alleged petition.

“That concentration should be on preparation to answer to the veracity or otherwise of the issues stated in the purported petition, admitting or denying the facts therein alleged and not seek to divert attention by these fruitless attempts.”

He added that all Akwa Ibom people should unite more to support and court Senator Akpabio in his standing as President of the Senate to deliver on his assignment and role as the head of the legislative arm of government and number three citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

As obtained in other states who have had the privilege of their sons holding such positions in the past, Enang said the people should sink all differences, bury party and ethnic divides “to have our basket of development challenges and present them to him to process and cause such within his powers and control to be executed while processing the rest to Mr President and appropriate ministers and institutions to handle for the benefit of our state.”

He stressed that thus far, the citizens and government of the state had seemed admirably to adopt and pursue this path, uniting behind the Senate President across party lines “until this unfortunate false spill of Deacon Udom Emmanuel and the EFCC alleged petition.”

He said the issues raised in the alleged petition from year 2016 to 2024 after Governor Udom had left office holds that every person in public office must have his day to account, if not before the people he served, but to God, ultimately.

The presidential liaison maintained that the issue should not central on the persons behind the petition, but if there are questions to answer on the tenure of the former governor.

“To my knowledge, Senator Godswill Akpabio is to engage on budget and economy management legislative issues, relationship amongst peers and delivering on President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, the big national picture with no time or window for trivialities on what somebody may have done during his tenure,” Enang said.

He further stated that the Senate President will continue to take the entire Akwa Ibom State and the nation as his constituency without discrimination and deliver on the big national space and picture, ignoring trivialities from low minded ‘new saints’.