From Joe Effiong, Uyo
The clash between Senator Godswill Akpabio and his kinsman, DIG Udom Ekpoudom (retd), over the Akwa Ibom North West (Ikot Ekpene) senatorial ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is getting messier as the former police boss has accused the former governor of lawlessness
Ekpoudom campaign organisation had issued a statement describing the repeat primary which Akpabio was declared winner with 478 votes as “sham, deceitful, unconstitutional and legally defective.”
But Akpabio through his media aide, Jackson Udom accused Ekpoudom of belonging to “the Udoedehe contraption which is not recognised by the INEC and the national leadership of the party based on the judgment of the Appeal Court of the Abuja Division, which recognised Ntukekpo as the chairman of the state chapter of the party and not Austin Ekanem.”
Akpabio advised Ekpoudom not to “pollute the media space with falsehood of a non-existing senatorial ticket not being for sale. Nobody will buy a fake, illegal and non-existing ticket.”
But in an interview with Daily Sun, Ekpoudom accused Akpabio of planning to destroy the APC in the state with his brand of politics which is all about money and lawlessness.
He said he won clearly the primary conducted on May 27, but lamented that Akpabio, who was busy campaigning for the party’s presidential ticket returned to the state after stepping down for Bola Tinubu to create confusion by attempting to snatch the ticket from him through illegitimate primary or monetary inducement.
He alleged that Akpabio wants to settle him to handover the senatorial ticket but vowed never to succumb to such offer as it was the turn of Abak to produce senator for Akwa Ibom North West. He said every elder of the party in the senatorial district is mad at Akpabio for killing the party in the state.
“I’m surprised that the former governor of this state would like to take everybody in this state for a ride, it’s very unfortunate. He said he wanted to be the president of this country. He went and sold off… He came back and felt that he could fool everybody and take over the senate seat of the Akwa Ibom North West…Now I’m told he wants to come and settle me. Well, I have never been a minister before. But if I allow myself to be settled, the people of my area will look at me with very bad eyes. The senatorial seat is zoned to my Abak federal constituency, other areas have gone; his area has gone five times. My area has never gone. That is why the elders sat down and said the seat should go to Abak federal constituency which I contested and won.
“So there was no primary; those who were supposed to be there were not there. INEC as a very important agency of government was not there. All I can say is that Akpabio is a lawless man. But I am very sorry for him because he has destroyed APC in this state. Because of him, we may not have an APC governorship candidate in this state. Because of him, we have gone to Abuja two times, but delegates from Akwa Ibom State were not allowed to vote. We went with two lists, but because he thinks that there was money to throw about; but we were not allowed to vote. So there was nothing like primary in Ikot Ekpene that day. It was just a scam.”
Reminded that the National Working Committee (NWC) of APC was said to have sent in party officials to conduct the primary Akpabio won, Ekpoudum retorted: “I don’t believe. But I want to remind the NWC that if the party in the state flops as it has flopped now, they should look at what is right and not someone they think has money. I don’t think the national working committee would send people to come do illegality. I don’t believe it.”
Asked if Akpabio has reached out to him since the repeat primary, he said he saw a call from Akpabio but ignored it as he was too busy to discuss with him.
“I am the authentic APC candidate for APC Akwa Ibom North West senatorial district,” he said.