Group accuses APC of raising false alarm at tribunal

The Akwa Ibom Liberation Movement (AILM) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of raising false alarm at the ongoing election petition tribunal in the state.

At a press conference on Saturday, Samuel Abasiekong, secretary of the group, said the opposition party made baseless allegations against the tribunal judge.

He said the APC leaders in Akwa Ibom claimed that they had established that Jennifer Ijohor, a judge at the tribunal, has a strong family relationship with a PDP stalwart.

Abasiekong said making unsubstantiated claims about the tribunal was childish and unfounded.

“Is it not suspicious that APC and its candidates waited for all its witnesses in the National and State Assembly petition tribunal to runoff their testimonies and the tribunal reached the critical stage of giving judgement before they suddenly began to cry wolf? Had the judgement favoured them would they have raised these false alarm?” he asked.

“Like we have always stated, the APC in Akwa Ibom State is a an assemblage of political jobbers, who do not have any concrete political structure or real followers except hired crowd and paid agents on social media.

“We are aware that almost all those so called APC candidates for State House of Assembly elections had accepted defeat at the polls, knowing they did not prepare for it and had no money to pay for litigation. However, they were all directed to contest their elections in tribunal as their legal expenses will be taken care of by former Managing Director of NDDC, Mr. Nsima Ekere.

“Our intelligence also revealed that Mr.Ekere did this to support his case at the Governorship election petition tribunal; intending to sustain the impression that APC is on ground and stood a chance of winning at Local Government Areas. Whereas the truth as variously confessed by APC witnesses is that the party failed woefully because it intended to rely on violence and federal might to win through rigging”.

On the claims of threat to life, AILM questioned the authenticity of these allegations, drawing attention of the public to several antics of the petitioner to have the tribunal relocated from the State.

“We are not surprised by these claims of threat to life, in fact it was expected because the APC, who is the petitioner in these matters had tried in many ways to have the tribunal relocated to Abuja. As confirmed by Chairman of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, Justice A. W. Yakubu, there were series of petitions against the sitting of the tribunal in Uyo.

“The APC is quick to allege threat to life of its witnesses, but forgets to add that its chieftain, Senator Godswill actually started threatening witnesses by having his media aide, Anietie Ekong, post pictures of INEC staff on Facebook while they gave testimony.

“Our take on this allegation is that in the State, APC is known for violence and intimidation. Just as the foremost leader of APC, Senator J J. Udoedeghe rightly stated before election, the APC has been overrun by killers. Therefore we urge the party to look inwards to identify those behind these alleged threats.

“In addition, we wonder if this is not another futile effort to relocate the tribunal because recent intelligence reports exposed how APC chieftains had plotted to create an atmosphere of insecurity in the State in order to forced the tribunal to be relocated.”