Akwa Ibom PDP: Our state won’t succumb to threats

The Akwa Ibom state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has vowed not to succumb to “plots to illegally take over control of apparatus of state”.

Speaking at a press conference in the state on Thursday, Paul Ekpo, chairman of the PDP in Akwa Ibom, accused the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the federal government of creating chaos in the state.

He said the crisis rocking the state house of assembly could lead to loss of lives, calling on the public to mount pressure on the government to do what is expected of it.

Below is the text of Ekpo’s speech at the meeting:

Our Party – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has invited you this evening to alert Nigerians, international community, and indeed the whole world of attempts by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in collusion with security agencies to make the state ungovernable and possibly declare a state of emergency to pave way for easy manipulations of election results in 2019.

This may lead to the loss of lives of our people.

On Monday, November 19, our party had received and subsequently published intelligence report on the plans by the APC to illegally prevent the sitting of the Akwa Ibom House of Assembly, using thugs and political miscreants.
Just as the intelligence at our disposal had clearly shown, as early as 7am, buses bearing insignia of the opposition APC led by known chieftains of their political coven appeared at the gate of the Assembly and set up bonfire, preventing human and vehicular traffic and seeking to prevent the lawful business of the state legislature.
On the intervention of the police, the Speaker of the House led members into the Chambers and resumed legislative duties. At the sitting, the Speaker evoked the provision of section 109(2) which empowers him to declare the seats of those who had infringed upon section 109(1)(g) and accordingly declared their seats vacant.
This decision by the Speaker to declare the seats which has a precedent in 2014, became the avenue for the All Progressive Congress to commence their long planned desire of unleashing violence and hooliganism on a legal institution of the state as a prelude to making the state ungovernable preparatory to the 2019 elections.
We wish to state that as at the time the APC agents and thugs invaded the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, There was no stay of execution issued by any court of law against the speaker in respect of Idongesit Ituen’s case. After the judgment of the court was delivered, the enrolled order (summary of the judgment) was served on the office of the Honorable Speaker and the Clerk of the House. The language of this order of the court was that compliance should be given with IMMEDIATE EFFECT. (please see the order of the court as contained in the judgment of 14/11/2018).
The PDP, and indeed Akwa ibom people are not by any means intimidated by these machinations of the APC-led Federal Government which is intended to help them achieve their selfish aim of illegally and forcefully capturing Akwa Ibom State as we are sure that this will fail. Just like they have repeatedly failed to achieve whatever aim they hoped to achieve with the constant and continuous change of heads of Security agents in the State, their ultimate plan of derailing the machinery of governance in our state and maybe sacrifice the lives of Akwa Ibom people in the bid to achieve their heinous objective will fail.
It is pertinent to note that we have uncovered a fresh plot by the APC to use the EFCC to clamp down on Akwa Ibom State Government accounts. This is another desperate attempt by the APC to paralyze the activities of the government of Akwa Ibom State.
Recall that Akwa Ibom State; despite being adjudged as the safest state in Nigeria has had a very high turnover of Police Commissioners. This is a clear indication of the manipulation of the APC as a prelude to activating intelligence report reaching us on the planned assassination attempts of some high-ranking PDP and Akwa Ibom State government officials.
The PDP and indeed Akwa Ibom people are not ignorant of the fact that all these preliminary machinations by the APC are just mere schemes to drag Governor Udom Emmanuel on a collision course with President Mohammadu Buhari, GCFR, so as to attract sympathy for the deployment of Federal might immediately before and during the elections.

We are confident that the international community, Nigerians and Akwa Ibom people are taking note of the players in this show of shame and their respective roles in the effort to push the State into an abyss of violence, anarchy and destruction.
We hereby commend the Akwa Ibom State Governor His Excellency, Mr Udom Gabriel Emmanuel, for peacefully running the affairs of the state, Senator Bassey Albert Akpan, for his effective representation and drawing the attention of the National Assembly to happenings in our state.

We also specially commend the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly under the leadership of Rt Hon (Barr.) Onofiok Luke for demonstrating maturity and competence in steering the affairs of the House.
We however condemn in strong terms the comical and criminal act of the five dissident House members who broke into the hallowed chambers of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly. We implore the Nigerian Police Force and other security agencies to remain non-partisan in the discharge of the duties.
In view of the foregoing, we make this extant demand:
That the Inspector-General of Police and the Commissioner of Police in Akwa Ibom State, should as a matter of urgency, cause the troops laying siege at the premises of the Akwa Ibom State of House of Assembly to vacate with immediate effect and cease forthwith, further intimidation of officials of Akwa Ibom government and principal officers of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly.

As a party that has kept its promises to Akwa Ibom people, we are confident that we will head to the polls in 2019 and we will, together with Akwa Ibom people record resounding victories in all categories of elections.