Following the crisis arising from the expulsion of the five members of the Akwa Ibom State House Assembly, it appears that the invading of the State House of Assembly was the beginning of an agenda by Ekere to cause confusion in Akwa Ibom state and ultimately, postpone the gubernatorial election.
Recall that the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly was invaded in the early hours of Tuesday, November 27, 2018 by thugs of APC dressed in military uniforms and under the protection of the Nigerian Police on the orders of the Akwa Ibom State Police Commissioner. This action was to facilitate the illegal and unconstitutional entry into the hallowed chambers by the five former members whose seats were earlier declared vacant by a Federal High Court in Uyo.
The State commissioner for information, Mr. Charles Udoh responding to the development, described the action of the five former members of the House of Assembly as a poorly scripted comedy movie. Their action is also a sad reflection of their intellectual capacity as they decided to take laws into their hands with the help of the police instead of approaching a high court of law to seek redress.
It is pertinent to note that 13 APC thugs dressed in military uniforms and armed with AK47 rifles were apprehended by law abiding citizens and handed over to the police. But it is mind boggling that these hoodlums were set free without due process of investigations by the police. A few days before this, a section of the perimeter fence of the Assembly complex was pulled down in the dead of the night by people suspected to be APC thugs as a prelude to facilitating the invasion.
Thanks to the timely intervention in regards to the invasion by the Governor of the state, Udom Emmanuel, normalcy was restored. The visit of the governor to the House of Assembly was clearly in line with his position as the chief security officer of the state. The Governor has a moral and constitutional responsibility to legally protect lives and properties in the state.
Many are living witnesses to the well documented antics of the APC state geared towards stirring up embers of violence in Akwa Ibom state in order to pave to way for them to take over control of the state apparatus and influence election results. The APC in the state has never lost an opportunity to beat the drums of criminality and violence while openly bragging about their plans to deploy federal might in the struggle for power.
However, the scorecard of the Governor is evidently impressive despite the challenges of an epileptic national economy. The Governor has delivered across all indices of his five-point agenda. In the last three years, Akwa Ibom has been consistently rated as the second destination for foreign direct investment in Nigeria with an array of over 12 industries powered through and investor oriented approach.
Since Udom Emmanuel’s emergence as governor, all major secondary healthcare facilities have been fixed and over 40 containers of medical equipment have been imported. The price of staple food has dropped drastically. Akwa Ibom youths have been empowered, the educational system has improved tremendously, roads have been constructed and even the transparency and integrity of governance in Akwa Ibom state has been unparalleled.
Place these achievements side by side the credentials of the APC aspirant; who controls the budget size of nine states plus 2% of the earnings of the international oil companies with no visible projects/achievements to show, and even the blind would notice wide disparities.
It’s also enlightening to note that unlike past MD’s of the commission who resigned their appointments before diving in to contest for political office, Mr Ekere is still holding on to his seat.
This is questionable. Nsima and his cohorts are obviously not gearing for elections but to collude with security agencies to make the state ungovernable in the hope that they can persuade Mr President to declare a state of emergency to pave way for easy manipulations of election results in 2019.