2019: Quest For Winning Presidency Starts In A’Ibom - Paul Ekpo

Itoro BASSEY-

Chairman of the the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State, Mr Paul Ekpo, Tuesday, acknowledged that PDP’s quest for winning the presidency in 2019 has started in Akwa Ibom State.

At the election campaigns by members of the PDP in Nsit Ubium, Nsit Ibom and Etinan, the three local government areas making up Etinan Federal Constituency, yesterday, Ekpo said the huge crowd of supporters that turned up to welcome party officials, as witnessed in other local government areas toured so far, was a proof of PDP’s popularity in the state.

And he declared: “We’re taking the party to greater heights. There has never been a time in the history of flag-offs that we had the National body of our party coming to empower our people, because the quest for winning Aso Rock in 2019 starts here in Akwa Ibom State.

“The marathon race will start on December 2 at the local government elections here in Akwa Ibom. The race race will lead us to the House of Assembly election in 2019 which will be all twenty-six elected members for PDP.

“It will also lead us to the Federal House of Representatives which will be all ten seats for us. That same race will lead us to the senatorial election which will be three elected senators for PDP.

“Again, the marathon race will lead us to the governorship election where Udom Emmanuel will win his second term and it will end at Aso Rock with PDP presidency”.

Ekpo however reassured the PDP supporters that hired persons by the opposition party will not vote in the forthcoming local council elections in Akwa Ibom State.

He said, “I’ve been reliably informed that, for lack of human beings, on Saturday, the 183 luxurious buses that came from Aba, Umuahia, Owerri, Cross River, Ikom, Akamkpa, Obudu, have disappeared. It is one thing to mobilise, but to demobilised is always a problem.

“I want to thank security agents who took time to make sure that those people who were abandoned, after they were mobilised to Akwa Ibom, left our state without causing security infractions”.

Propellerng.com learned that a large percentage of the crowd that turn up, last Saturday, at the election campaign flag-off held by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State for the forthcoming local government elections were rented.

Although Ekpo, who made allusion to this did not mention whether or not money was paid to each of these people, it was gathered from multiple sources at PDP campaign venues that the amount paid depended on the distance they came from and the calibre of people engaged.

Ekpo said, “I want to tell them that when you bring people to Akwa Ibom to come and participate in local elections, how would you mobilise them to go to units, which unit would they go; how would they mobilise them to go to villages, which village would they go; how would they mobilise them to go to wards, which ward would they go?.

For Ekpo and all the PDP supporters at the rally, Governor Udom Emmanuel is sure to return to the Hilltop Mansion for a second term in 2019 because of his “prudence in the management of the resources of Akwa Ibom State”, among other qualities he is known for.

“If there’s any governor in Nigeria, when it comes to the issue of finances, there’s none like Udom Emmanuel. And I’m happy that the house of assembly had risen to his defense from the falsehood spread by opposition elements about the financial statements of the state”, he added.

Ekpo said of Senator Nelson Effiong, “He has never brought anything positive to this state. He had enjoyed this party for 16 years and the only thing he has done is to get home and be confusing people”.

Effiong, now an APC Senator, represents Eket senatorial district in the National Assembly. He won his election on the PDP platform in 2015.

Ekpo said further: “I want Akwa Ibom people to note that the reconstruction of Calabar/Itu Road has been captured in the 2017 federal budget, and we’re asking them now to tell us where they kept the funds because if they don’t work on that road, we will know that they are liars”.

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the Akwa Ibom state House of Assembly, Onofiok Luke, reiterated his earlier position that Governor Udom Emmanuel has judiciously put the state’s resources into several developmental projects contrary to recent claims by some opposition elements in the state.

Luke, who spoke during the campaign at Ikot Edibon, headquarters of Nsit Ubium, said that it was false and misleading the recent claims credited to the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters-Senate, and stalwart of the opposition APC, Ita Enang, that the state government has not brought to the notice of Akwa Ibom people its financial statements.

He said the publication of the state’s audited account was one of the conditions upon which the state assembly made subsequent approvals to the state executive, noting that same publication was the condition for the state to accessthe budget support fund of the federal government.

Luke spoke as head of the state legislature, the arm he noted is clearing house of government, whose duty it has been to approve the state’s yearly budget.

“They (opposition) asked us where our monies are. Yesterday I showed them the documents of the financial statement of Akwa Ibom state to show where our monies are.

“These documents were not only specially printed and made available for public information, the statements were published in the dailies.

“Evidently, our monies are in the roads that are being constructed across the state. Our monies are in the hospitals that are being equipped and maintained all over the state.

“Our monies are in the educational institutions that are being provided with learning materials. Our monies are in the markets and in the stalls we’ve built for our people.

“Our monies have been used judiciously for women and youth empowerment. We have documents to answer to those questions”, the Speaker said.

Members of the national and state assemblies from the three local government areas also attended the campaigns.

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