The attention of the Government of Akwa Ibom State has been drawn to an interview granted by the Governor His Excellency Mr Udom Emmanuel, and published on ThisDay Newspaper of Sunday June 25,2017, with the headline, "Emmanuel, There Is No Alternative to PDP Yet".

While we align ourselves with the contents of the interview which are excerpts of the views expressed by His Excellency, the Governor, we completely dissociate ourselves from the introductory aspect of the publication which tends to cast aspersion on the records and achievements of the immediate past Governor and Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio. The said sentence read, “As a banker, his experience and exposure came handy and today, Akwa Ibom is generally believed to have fared better than the days of the lousy ‘uncommon transformation’ with a relatively conservative but generous effective approach to governance.”

Governor Emmanuel holds Senator Godswill Akpabio in high esteem and like every well-meaning Akwa Ibomite, the governor appreciates the successes of the uncommon transformation era as the foundation of today’s Akwa Ibom which his administration is building on.

It was against the backdrop of those successes that ThisDay Newspaper bestowed on the former governor, a prestigious title of "Emerging Tiger" in 2009.

His Excellency Mr Udom Emmanuel operates a government of political inclusion and has maintained a policy of uniting every Akwa Ibomite beyond all divides in the task of developing the state and as such is totally against such negative remarks against past leaders or other stakeholders from the state.

We therefore urge the general public to discountenance the said comment which we believe was made in error by the newspaper.

Charles Udoh
Hon. Commissioner
Information & Strategy