Counsel to Akwa Ibom State APC governorship candidate in April election and former Attorney-General of the state, Victor Iyanam, speaks to Special Correspondent, EMMA AYUNGBE, on the chances of his client, Umana Umana, at the tribunal, performance of Governor Udom Emmanuel, among other issues.
Situation of things in Abuja centre of Akwa Ibom Election Tribunal between Umana and Emmanuel
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is taking instructions from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and from the government of Akwa Ibom State. The Attorney-General is always here in Abuja. I wonder what he is always doing here, instead of attending to matters in Uyo. He is not the Attorney-General of the PDP.
INEC has not given us the materials as ordered by the court, and currently the situation has not changed. They are still taking instructions from PDP and the governor of Akwa Ibom.
I was once an Attorney-General and I supervised election petition for Godswill Akpabio in 2007 and 2011. I was part of the legal team. But when I was the Attorney-General, I never intervened in the affairs of the tribunal and of INEC. What I am saying is that he has no business coming to INEC office.
Umana inspecting the governorship election material as ordered by the court
That is what I am telling you; that the INEC has not given us the materials as ordered by the court. Currently, the situation has not changed. They are still taking instructions from PDP and the governor of Akwa Ibom.
Governorship candidate of Accord Party (AP), Apostle Samuel Akpan, in court as a witness
He did excellently. He made startling revelations, but I doubt if any revelation can be startling as far as the PDP is concerned.
Everybody saw that they were killing people, running away with ballot boxes. Nothing can be more startling than that. The whole country knows about that.
All that the man said was in public domain; everybody knew that PDP ran away with materials. So, there is nothing startling about them.
Cancelling the election on the grounds that there was no election
It is not that there was no election, but the election was not substantial to have declared Udom Emmanuel the winner of the governorship election. The only place election took place was in Urue Offong Uroko Local Government.
Chances of Umana and the APC at the tribunal
His chances are very bright. I will not participate in a petition that is just for the sake of petitioning. And we are even preparing for the re-run. Even PDP is preparing for a re-run because the members know that indeed there is a deserving case for a re-run.
They have started doing some political things; you see Emmanuel going to Oron to start talking about erosion, something nobody ever talked about. You see him setting up a phony committee on Ibaka Sea Port. All those things are calculated to curry the favour of Oron people. We are not deceived and yet he has forgotten that he has only two Oron commissioners.
Commissioners from Oron and other commissioners that have been appointed by Emmanuel
It’s just that I don’t recognise this government. Any government in office should not give Oron anything less than five commissioners.
Oron nation deserves at least five commissioners. We are not even talking about special advisers; we don’t want to hear about it.
Oron is the financial food basket of Akwa Ibom. Why should we deserve less? Look at Ibaka Deep Sea Port that is a potential money-spinner for the state. It has been established long ago that Ibaka is a natural seaport; even before the Calabar River Port.
Committee set up by Emmanuel to actualise the Ibaka Deep Seaport
During Akpabio’s administration, a committee was set up that agreed that Ibaka Seaport was inevitable for economic breakthrough of the state. The governor even went to do ground-breaking. Then, somebody has come to set up a committee now, intending to bring the issue alive to deceive Oron people. Who is he deceiving?
We don’t want to hear such things. We will not allow our people to wallow in ignorance.
Emmanuel winning even if a re-run is ordered on account of investors in the state.
That is rubbish. Did he bring more investors than Akpabio into the state? Akpabio brought many white men. He used to talk about some oil prospecting companies coming into Oron; they were up to 20.
Emmanuel brought white men and took pictures with them. He brought photographers and all manner of television stations to talk about it. We have heard all that before.
If he wanted to start on a slate of transparency, why didn’t he start by telling us how much we’re owing? Akwa Ibom was listed as one of the states that could not pay salaries. There were about 15 of them that went to the federal government. They were quarrelling with them for using money for salaries to do politics.
How can you say he has started well by jeopardising the economic wellbeing of the state; by jeopardising the employment potentials of the state? How can he give an order that only Zenith Bank should house the state money? How about other banks that have Akwa Ibom people in them; are they not going to start retrenching? Why is it Zenith Bank only? Is that not discriminatory? We have so many banks in Akwa Ibom; our children are working in those banks and nobody is talking about it. That is not the kind of development we are talking about. That man is going to be worse than Akpabio.
Days left for Umana to inspect election materials
The court in Abuja gave us 14 days seeing that we have not done what we are supposed to do. As it is now, the number of days seems to be insignificant because of persistent refusal by INEC to obey the court order; instead they are busy receiving instructions from PDP and Akwa Ibom Attorney-General.
We are within time. I think we have the fastest tribunal so far. The court has given us 14 days to review our case. Our time will expire by the end of October.