Remember the incident which happened on the day of the gubernatorial election in April 26, 2011, when Godswill Akpabio and his supporters burnt government properties in Uyo and framed up Senator Akpan Udoedehe for the mayhem? When the Senator was detained and eventually arrested, Akpabio's lawyers filed sedition charges against him in an Abuja court. A couple of months ago, the (Akpabio's) lawyers went to court and filed a petition to transfer the case to Uyo for trial. At that time, the presiding judge postponed the ruling on the petition to today; December 6, 2011.
Well, today the judge gave his ruling; he is not transferring the case to Uyo---it will be heard in Abuja on February, 2012. The judge also asked Akpabio's lawyers why they filed the case in Abuja in the first place, if they wanted the case heard in Uyo. Additionally, according to the judge, treason is a federal crime, which must be heard in a federal court; therefore, the court in Abuja is competent to hear the case because it is a federal court.
Eye witnesses confirmed that after the judge delivered his ruling, Akpabio's lawyers and his supporters, who were in the courtroom, with some standing outside with their timbales and timbrels, ready to shout another of their familiar "Akpabio Wins," looked dejected, somber, and disappointed. An effort to reach Senator Akpan Udoedehe for his personal opinion on what transpired today in the courtroom has been unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, Godswill Akpabio is running around Nigeria trying to buy influence over the up-coming Election Fraud Tribunal, which, per the order of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, will soon be held in Uyo. Remember the recent Akwa Ibom State invasion by Northern leaders on the invitation of Godswill Akpabio? Here is the real story on why the invasion is taking place.
When the dispute of the April 26 (2011) governorship election was still pending in the Supreme Court, Akpabio (many of you may remember this) was busy traveling around Northern parts of the country meeting with Emirs and other influential Northern leaders. What Akpabio did was to bribe or attempt to bribe those Northern leaders so that they can exert pressure and influence the President of the Court to appoint judges who would be sympathetic to Akpabio to listen to the case at the Supreme Court.
Sources say one of the Northern leaders (name withheld), whom Akpabio had slighted in the past, decided to contact some of the leaders that Akpabio had contacted. According to sources, this particular Northern leader went around Akpabio’s back and said this to his leaders; “Don’t listen to Akpabio. The man is a crook. I have visited Akwa Ibom State many times and I can authoritatively tell you that the man is a failed leader. He cannot provide jobs, proper education, basic healthcare, affordable transportation, and better roads for his own people. He is incapable of uniting his people and uses ethnic origin as a political weapon to stir up division among his people. He is always manipulating the judiciary of his own State, thereby forcing the members of the judiciary to violate the integrity of the judiciary. He cannot, and does not even make any attempt to protect his own people from hunger, robbery, and murder of innocent citizens, despite the billions of naira he receives every month from the federal government.”
The strategy worked; the Supreme Court referred the case to Uyo for trial, a day before the end of the dateline of 180 days stipulated by the federal Government for election fraud cases. But this did not stop Godswill Akpabio from re-directing his evil strategy.
See, Akpabio forgot that during the gubernatorial election, he had made disparaging remarks against General Buhari who was in the State to campaign for one of the gubernatorial candidates of his Party (Larry Esin or Sam Ewang?). At that time, Akpabio announced on the media that no Northern politician should come to Akwa Ibom State to look for its oil money under the pretense of political campaign.
At a press conference, which took place at Uyo at the time, sources say, Akpabio was about to make more disparaging remarks against Northerners, and against General Buhari in particular, when his aides quickly shut-off the microphone and whispered into Akpabio’s ears cautioning him to be mindful of his utterances against Northerners. But it was too late; the next day, newspapers across the country, especially those owned by Northerners, did not waste time making the headlines out of whatever Akpabio said at the press conference. At that time, the Northern leaders read what was in the news and remained silent. Akpabio thought he was dealing with Ibibio leaders who seem to quickly forget the insult of Akpabio on Ibibio people.
One of the Northern leaders whom Akpabio contacted was El Rufai. People said when El Rufai showed Akpabio a copy of the news report of the remarks that Akpabio made against the Northerners, Akpabio almost fainted. He begged and had no choice but to prostrate for El Rufai to the embarrassment of his (Akpabio’s) aides who accompanied him during the visit to El Rufai. It is not clear what the outcome of the prostration was.
But when Akpabio approached General Abubakar (the former Head of State), sources said Abubakar recanted what he heard about Akpabio as being a failed leader. To prove to Abubakar that he has done a lot for Akwa Ibom State, Akpabio invited him on a State visit. This explains why General Abubakar was the guest of honor of Akpabio a couple of weeks ago.
To influence the ACN, Akpabio approached ACN stalwarts and tried to bribe them to stop supporting Senator Akpan Udoedehe. Besides the former Governor of Lagos State (Tinubu), another individual which Akpabio tried to influence is Segun Osoba (excuse my spelling). But a highly reliable source has confirmed that Osoba told Akpabio to go to hell. “You think, just because you have control of the people’s money, you can by everyone. Just think of what the amount of money you offer me would do for your people.” Akpabio, according to a reliable source, left almost in tears.
The point to all these is that because Akpabio did not succeed in influencing the outcome of the Supreme Court, he is now working feverishly to influence the outcome of the Tribunal in Uyo. This time around, unlike the first time, Akpabio does not want to be accused of compromising directly with the Tribunal judges. So, what he does now is to go one step higher by attempting to bribe the seat of judicial power, hoping it will be able to select judges that would be sympathetic to him. But what Akpabio does not yet know (until the trial begins) are the mountains and convincing evidence of election fraud that had been compiled by ACN to the Tribunal. According to one of the lawyers, who helped in the compilation of that evidence, “When the judges have the opportunity to see the evidence, they will be so moved that even if they had received bribe from Akpabio, they will have to return it.”
But Akpabio is not perturbed. He has vowed to continue in his quest to spend the people’s money according to his whims and caprices. This article is directed at only one target--that of ACN versus PDP---; the case of Frank Okon, which is coming up on December 15 (2011), is not even addressed here. That, too, is costing the people of Akwa Ibom State a lot of money. The question is when will Akpabio know that his time is up, that his days of parading himself as the Governor of Akwa Ibom State is soon going to be over? Who is there that can interpret the handwriting on the wall for Akpabio? Akpabio needs help. Is there any taker?
Written by
Ikpafak Thompson Essien
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