(Joe Effiong – UYO)
Akwa Ibom State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Uwemedimo Nwoko has dismissed the insinuation that there is a clash of interest between former governor of the state, Godswill Akpabio and the incumbent, Governor Udom Emmanuel as the 2019 election gets closer.
Speaking with Daily Sun, on Tuesday, in Uyo, Nwoko, who equally served in same capacity when Akpabio was governor, said Governor Udom and Akpabio’s relationship are as cordial as ever.
The Commissioner also said that when Akpabio meant that all was not well with the politics of Akwa Ibom State, he actually wanted the people of Ikot Ekpene senatorial district to sit up for the coming general election.
“When the senator said ‘all is not well’, he was telling the Ikot Ekpene senatorial people to work hard; that they should not go to sleep or be complacent. Having a governor here doesn’t mean that you should go and sleep when you know that the governor is the strongest point they have as they do not have the support from the national.
“As far as Akpabio is concerned, Akwa Ibom has no alternative platform. We will play one party. That decision has been taken and there is not wavering about it; no second thought about which party we are going to play. We are playing PDP and as far as we are playing PDP, PDP will not even have a second aspirant beside Governor Udom Emmanuel.
“The PDP at the national level banks on the PDP in Akwa Ibom State as one of the strongest pillars that are going to back up the party as we are marching up to the federal.”
Nwoko said at the breakfast meeting which the people of Ikot Ekpene Senatorial district later had with the governor, the efforts the state government was making to get the hotel in Ikot Ekpene functional or to complete the Uyo-Ikot Ekpene Road which Akpabio had complained about was, thoroughly explained by the governor to the satisfaction of stakeholders from the Ikot Ekpene.
“The problem is not Sen. Akpabio because he speaks depicting the common man walking in the street. The governor listed out yesterday that about 10 sensitive positions in the present government is held by the people of Ikot Ekpene senatorial district, including my own, the SSG and so many others.”