GOVERNOR DIRI HEADS GUBER PANEL IN PORT HARCOURT
…MULTIPLE CORRUPTION CHARGES HAUNT SENATOR’S HILLTOP RACE


As Court banters resume on May 5, palpable fear has gripped the camp of Senator Bassey Albert, governorship aspirant in the Akwa Ibom State Governorship race. with the appointment of members of the South South Screening Committee.

With the choice of Governor Douye Diri, as the chairman of the South South Gubernatorial screening committee, and the notion that
the Bayelsa State Governor is a highly incorruptible public officer with zero tolerance for corruption, Senator Bassey Albert’s followers may have already pressed the panic button.

Diri became Governor of Bayelsa after the court disqualified the candidacy of his opponent in the APC for false documentations.

With this background, Senator Diri, it is believed will uphold the integrity of the party by ensuring that only credible aspirants with unblemished antecedents are cleared for the primaries.

Senator Basey Albert, with a fleet of legal entanglements may have a hard hurdle to cross before the Seven-man panel in Port Harcourt, and his supporters are wary that the car bribe and money laundering charges against him by the EFCC dangle like the Sword of Damocles.

The Car bribery

In May 2017, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission detained Senator Akpan over cars that Akpan had allegedly received as a bribe from Jide Omokoreyears beforehand while Akpan was Akwa Ibom Finance Commissioner and Chairman of the State Inter-Ministerial Direct Labour Coordinating Committee.

Reports showed that the Omokore's companies – Bay Atlantic Energy and Sahel Energy – received contracts from the Direct Labour Coordinating Committee and the EFCC claimed the vehicles were used to bribe Akpan. Akpan called the detainment and investigation politically motivated and claimed to have filed a suit against the EFCC for breaching his fundamental human rights.

In August 2018, the EFCC filed charges against Akpan and Omokore in the High Court of Lagos Statefor corruption and bribery. The case was later tossed out by Justice O.A. Taiwo due to jurisdictional issues based on the defense's argument that the case should have been brought in Akwa Ibom not Lagos State.

False Asset Declaration

In June 2018, charges were filed against Akpan for failing to declare his true assets after an investigation by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel on the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP) which accused Akpan of failing to disclose his ownership or the true cost of several houses.[28]Akpan labeled the charges a plot to tarnish his image and bound to fail.

Petroleum Industry Bill bribes

After the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in August 2021, Akpan was accused of facilitating the bribery of federal legislators to guarantee the legislation's advancement despite significant public opposition to parts of the text. According to Peoples Gazette reporting, at least $10 million was paid to legislators in payments organized by Akpan and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva with between $1.5 million and $2 million going to both Senate President Ahmad Lawan and House Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila.

Multiple legislators, according to an online report by Premium Times and Sahara Reporters, corroborated the story with several legislators expressing anger, not that the Gbajabiamila and Lawan allegedly took bribes but instead that the bribes were not shared equally among the legislators as other legislators claimed to have received $5,000 for representatives and $20,000 for senators. Gbajabiamila, Lawan, Sylva, and Akpan all declined to comment on the story.

This is not journalism, this is propaganda written by a brown envelope journalist

This one too will fail.

Obong Bassey Albert is the incoming governor of Akwa Ibom state under PDP.

HMMM. if u know u know