I reply my critics by Commissioning Projects -Gov. Akpabio

Says:

…We have stopped godfatherism
…Single Tenure Proposal is a Patriotic Move
…I will not impose my successor
…I am Not a Cultist

Q: Have you had any affiliation with any cult. There are talks of your closeness to members of the Buccaneers?
A: I have never been a member of any cult. During my days in school, the pirates were popular. But I showed no interest. When I was student at the University of Calabar, I had friends who belong to pirates, I had overtures. Most of them needed money. I had none.

Q: Which is your political school, Marxist, conservative, liberal…?
A: I am not a professional politician; I only do politics of development. I am a development oriented politician. I am just an angry man who believes Nigerians should not be where we are. In 1973, we used the train but 30 years after no train. I used to drive in 1989/1990 from Lagos to Ikot-Ekpene, there were roads, and 20 years after law school no good road from Lagos to Akwa Ibom. Nigeria Airways had 33 aircraft in its fleet, took one to Ghana, 30 years after we have no single plane, while the British Airways continue to grow. We had Dunlop and Michelin but today they have moved to neighboring West African states. , Including UAC and Lever Brothers. Job market is shrinking, we just keep churning out graduates. I feel the underdevelopment and I desire a change.  I wrote a book on Akwa Ibom, had a blue print, I was prepared.

Q: How do you cope with the fierce opposition?
A: Opposition exists only in the media. I reply my critics by commissioning projects for the people. What we have in Akwa Ibom is an organized propaganda machine sponsored by god fathers. We are still maintaining the 80/20 ratio for recurrent and capital. We have stopped godfatherism, we have in place 800 electrical projects, youths for agriculture scheme, cottage industry, free education, free medical for pregnant women and seniors, the Ibom power project, completed five General hospitals, built several new roads with dualization, rehabilitated several rural and urban roads, construction of flyovers. Politics is not war, but some people see it so. I have no reason to be violent; I never stopped anyone from campaigning in any area. We need to join hands and build the state and stop politics of bitterness.

Q: What is your view on the proposed tenure elongation?
A: It's a patriotic move on the part of Mr. President. Governorship and Presidential elections are very costly. The struggles get fierce by the day. With one tenure, you will concentrate and not start campaigning for second term two years into his tenure.

Q: How do you ensure your legacies are maintained?
A: I will not impose anyone on the people, but don't forget there will be a primary. The people will chose my successor, but if I they feel I have done well they will ensure the next Governor continues. It will involve even those in diaspora.

Q[b]: You cut your budget by 17%, how do you hope to achieve all you have mapped out for the current financial year?[/b]
A: The budget was based on revenue, in the sense that it all depends on what comes in from the federation account. The projection was based on the oil bench mark. If there is improvement we will raise it.

Q: The public private partnership program in your state?
A: We cannot run the private sector successfully because of the civil service we are involved in. We have the Meridian Hotel started by my predecessor, when we completed it, we handed over the Meridien group to run. The government has the land, wherewithal to partner with the private sector, we should provide enabling environment. We are inviting the private sector to come in with their resources , we can give you free land or equity participation depending on the partnership. For instance, we partnered with a firm called Septa Energy, we put in place a gas processing plant which cost a little over $500 million. Outside provision of land we made deposit of $33 million upfront , for future  purchase of the gas because we want to encourage them to come in. We gave them that money which they paid into an escrow account, to assure we are ready. We also handed over 800 million in payment for right of way to lay pipes for the project. We also signed an agreement that we will purchase the gas,

Q: What happened to the proposed Emakpe Refinery?
A: The man involved in the project was not sincere. He has been telling stories, it didn’t start with me but with the administration of Obong Victor Attah. He claimed he had a line of credit with a bank in the United States to build a refinery, and that all the state needed to was show some interest, the state paid $10 million to an Afribank escrow account, to show the state was ready to partner with him. So that his bank in the US will release about $250 million to him. But he connived with the management of Afribank they withdrew the money, $10million, money that was supposed to be in escrow. When the former governor Obong Attah queried the pace of the project after two years, it was at the tail end of that administration, nothing was done, so then former Governor strafe putting pressure for a refund of state cash. What he did was take out the $10 m and purportedly turned it into equity , he went to then investment arm of government, got them to issue a letter purportedly giving shares for the $10 m. The then governor got angry and took him and Afribank to court and asked for refund. When I came in he said he has official letters written by civil servants who authorized him to turn the $10 m into equity. And I asked him, what are you contributing. He kept telling stories, that the equipment were almost ready. Shortly before the then Vice President was to visit Akwa Ibom a ceremony at the site was part of his schedule. I went to the VP and told him I was not aware of the whole thing. So the VP declined. I wrote the contractor and told him you can't do any ceremony at the site until the case is done in court. Heathen turned the whole thing around flaming we did not want the refinery. It was a lie. He later met with us, and we told him sin e nothing is happening return our money. At last we decided to write off $6. 5 million which we decided to put in escrow as equity for him, so he had to refund $3.5 million. He returned $1 million, and he made a payment arrangement , he has not brought one naira. Next I saw Governor ( Emmanuel ) Uduaghan with a team with people from DESOPADEC came to Akwa Ibom. They said they wanted to come and look at our refinery but I told them it was an empty field. I told them don't bother yourselves, it was complete fraud.

 
Q: What are your plans for the cottage industry?
A: In this year’s budget we put in N 200 billion, we want to partner with investors. I brought in a former commerce minister, Senas Ukpana, to advise,. What we want to do mow is, we want to set up a commission to work on the blueprint. For instance if you are interested in tyre production, and it will cost you N 5 billion and the banks reluctant we can make provision for say N 1 billion from the investment arm of government, and pay to the bank, so the bank can give you the balance of N 4 billion. We will ensure the interest remain low,. we want to encourage investors to set up small industries, and create employment opportunities.

Q: What is the current situation now with the disputed oil wells?
A: On that issue, we had a dispute with Rivers state during the President( Olusegun ) Obasanjo administration. After the onshore offshore debacle, there was delineation of maritime of boundaries between the littoral states. When it came to Akwa Ibom it was skewed in favor of Rivers, Ex Gov Attah fought against it, then President Obasanjo said go and share the wells within that territory. They were 176. when they attempted to share the wells , Gov Attah disagreed on the nature of the number given to us , most of the ones given to Rivers were bearing our name , Obasanjo said we should share it 50/50, but it was not shared,  Rivers kept them all till I became Governor. I then wrote to late President Musa Yar Adua, and said  this so called arrangement was not implemented he revisited the matter and set up a committee of sundry agencies DPR, NNPC etc, to work on it for one and half years half years , they then did the delineation of boundaries  without oil wells for the littoral states. After that, we recovered some wells. Recently Rivers went to court Supreme Court which ruled that there was agreement, that we should share the economic value of the wells 50/50,  Which was done. But they said from the period they were returned to Akwa Ibom in 2009, they calculated and said I should pay back to Rivers, they calculated it and it came 10.9 billion ? We agreed to a payment arrangement.  But they did not tell Rivers to return to me the aspect they were owing us from 2005 to 2009, we are doing the calculation now, we may resolve it out of court .As for Cross River within that 2005, there was a letter issued to Cross River by the National Boundaries Commission, which said Nigeria is negotiating to keep western Bakassi as part of Nigeria. That being the case the boundary between Akwa Ibom and Cross River is delineated as follows, (a), Akwa Ibom will lose 75 oil wells, Cross Rivers will gain 75 oil wells, signed by director of the boundary commission. It was politically motivated so we lost 75 oil wells. Former Gov. Attah wrote Obasanjo, saying…we don't mind the arrangement but use same system to return our wells to us, that was what happened.

Source: http://www.pointblanknews.com/Interviews/os5406.html

Who can second or move a motion against these claims, please?