In furthering its push against the appointment of former Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio, as minister in the anticipated President Muhammadu Buhari cabinet, a leadership and integrity advocacy group in the state, Ibom Integrity and Servant Leadership Culture Initiative (IISLCI), has amplified its reasons for opposing the Senator’s likely consideration.
It also confirms its earlier stance on the issue which it had raised through a petition to the President, dated May 24, 2019, and captioned, “Ministerial Appointments: Why Appointing Akpabio May be Counter Productive”.
As in its earlier outing, IISLCI insists that the Senator is a destabilising agent to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and lacks the integrity for the high office of a minister. It also cited alleged pending corruption charges by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), against Akpabio, among reasons why the president should not consider him for appointment.
Equally, in apparent reaction to a statement by the state publicity secretary of APC, Nkereuwem Enyongekere, allegedly on behalf of the State Working Committee (SWC) of the party denying its existence, IISLCI, frowned that the SWC curiously focused on the registration status of the group and not addressing the issues it raised, which it said, merely aimed at contradicting the inner wishes of the teeming members of the party in the state. “We are however, encouraged by the fact that the said unsigned statement didn’t deny any of the issues bordering on integrity deficit that were raised in our letter”, the release stressed.
These are contained in a release by the group’s Executive Vice President, Dr. Asuquo Edidem Etim, dated, Sunday, June 9, 2019. In it, the group insisted that its complaint to the President echoes the inner thoughts of many patriotic and loyal members of APC in Akwa Ibom and the entire South South states, among which was that Senator Akpabio’s haughty attitude and public utterances against the party and the person of the president in 2011 and 2015 general elections eroded the goodwill and sympathy the APC had enjoyed in Akwa Ibom state before his defection to the party from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
It listed verifiable instances to ascertain the objectivity and veracity of its earlier assertions in the letter to the President. Among these, IISLCI alleged that Akpabio is still under the watch list of the EFCC), hence unfit for ministerial nomination in the Buhari’s Next Level government. It also accused him of being a destabilizing factor in APC in Akwa Ibom, which contributed to the party’s poor outing at the recent election, adding his flippancy and haughty public utterances still haunt the party even after the elections.
On the EFCC probe, the group cited a report in a Lagos newspaper, The Punch of September 21, 2017, in which Akpabio was quizzed by operatives of the anti-graft agency over an alleged N108 billion fraud few months after he left office, following a petition by a lawyer who is also an activist. In the petition, the lawyer had accused the former governor of fraudulent withdrawal of N18 billion from the state’s share of the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocation.
He also accused the senator of spending of over N50 billion state funds during the 2015 election and withdrawal of N18 billion from the state’s treasury allegedly for special services, reception of very important guests and sundry items.
The lawyer also accused Akpabio of illegal acquisition of multi-billion naira properties in choice areas of Lagos and Abuja among other such accusations. Etim, who quoted the President and EFCC sources, remarked that the senator has not been acquitted of the allegation.
On intolerance of opposing views, the group recalled how Akpabio had on March 27, 2011 masterminded the arraignment of Sen John Udoedehe for treason over the violence he (Akpabio) orchestrated on the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN campaign rally in Ikot Ekpene which left scores of ACN supporters dead. The unfortunate incident, it said, came after causing Udoedehe’s detention for weeks prior to the election in which he was Akpabio’s main opponent. Akpabio was then in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
IISLCI, further accused the senator of not keeping faith with the weekly executive council meeting, while he was a governor, wondering how he would keep up with the tasking schedule as a minister.
It added that his culture of intemperate language, will do more harm to the party at all levels, if appointed minister. In this instance, IISLCI recalled that while at a funeral ceremony in Aguobu-Owa, Ezeagu Local Government area of Enugu State on August 21, 2018, Senator Akpabio declared that APC’s takeover of Akwa Ibom in 2019 would be as total as the 1940 invasion of Poland by the German dictator, Adolf Hitler. This statement, the group noted, cost the APC enormous goodwill of voters in the 2019 elections.
Akpabio, the group, remarked, lacks electoral value, currently required to reposition APC in Akwa Ibom. “He came into APC with no recognizable political structure or any meaningful support base of any value. It was expected that a politician of that stature would be able to at least command the loyalty and following of at least half of the members of the House of Assembly, but he came almost empty handed. So, when PDP cleared all the 13 NASS seats, including his own, in Akwa Ibom, won 20 of the 21 House of Assembly seats in the state and retained the governorship of the state, it became very clear that we had actually overrated his electoral value and influence”, the statement added.
The group, therefore, is of the opinion that based on the desire of APC members in the state to have a representative in the coming cabinet of President Buhari, who would enjoy the support of majority of Akwa Ibom people irrespective of political background, and for equity and fairness in a party that is emerging from a depressing electoral experience, in the state, it needs a unifying factor, not an overlord with a humongous ego and sense of entitlement. Akpabio, it said, does not fit into this leadership class.