To Rt Hon. Eseme Sunday Eyiboh at 52

Sir, 
A columnist writing in Nigeria at this period of our national crisis is faced with the task of wading through the miasma of events of concurrent national importance. So no writer complains of the proverbial “writer’s block” now. What we have now is the “writer’s glut!” There is so much happening around you that one often gets confused sifting through to make an appropriate choice of what to tackle first. The north is still reeling under the sustained threat of Boko Haram bombs. Victims of the bombs are arriving their homes in body bags to the wailing and anguish of their loved ones and the rage of their communities. The country is at the lowest point in her patriotism quotient. Nigerians are now openly discussing how to break up. The nation’s institutions are still under lock and keys as a result of strike action by the academic staff union of universities. Nigerians are grappling with unimaginable hardship arising from the removal, albeit partial, of subsidy on petroleum products. 
I had started writing on the highly provocative statements in recent media credited to Lamido Sanusi, Nigeria’s Central Bank governor that tended to justify the madness that we call Boko Haram. I was tempted to dwell on his once fixation on the introduction of Islamic banking, a policy that I had no problem with, but one I am beginning to read more meaning into due to his current posturing on a number of issues. I had to suspend my comments on Sanusi, when the news of the ruling of the Court of Appeal came tumbling in. To me, the case had to take precedence over every other matter, because you are involved.
It was in the process of proceeding with my comment on the ruling that I came to realize that Saturday, January 28, 2012 was your fifth-second birthday. Was it a coincidence that nature brought the two incidents almost at the same time? No! Things don’t just happen like that. The outcome of the court case came at the time of your birthday to remind you that God owns everything, including our lives. The juxtaposition of the seeming antithetical events draws a natural attention to the fact that we tend to look at mundane worldly things and attach more importance to them than they deserve.
But I know you well enough to realize that you accept things the way they are and look up to God for direction. It takes a man who anchors his entire life, political and social to the unseen hands of God, for you to have risen to the heights you are now. I still hear your voice the day you told me the story of your youth. I still choke with emotion to remember the touching story of the deprivation of your youth. Your story on how you raised the last examination fee that saw you through secondary school, is still fresh. In your life, I have seen the hands of God in the affairs of man.
I am sure that your state in life today has confounded some people. Some are still surprised and angry that you have risen beyond the bounds they set for you. They are obviously miffed that another from a less class has appropriated what should have been theirs by birth. But while they play God, they are not God. The Almighty has lifted you far beyond their blighted imaginations. And He has not even finished with you.
As a politician, you are light years ahead of the clan of rent politicians furiously seeking your fall. You have demonstrated a brand of politics that they have never witnessed and of course, it shouldn’t have been you. You have shown the superiority of mind power over their manipulative power. You have proved that with a little political power, the story can change for the less privileged. 
I understand sir, when you face the undeserved vilifications and organized demonization of your person going on. I appreciate the turn of events when friends turn foes, for no reason other than following the herd. I, sometimes pity you when I see the grand conspiracy of the elite class, fighting so hard to dim a light they did not light. The very essence of the type of politics we play here thrives on blackmail and muckraking. If it were not so, how come that the same man our governor so publicly extolled his virtue at Ibom hall, calling on other representatives to take a cue from, would over night become a non performer? How come that the man the entire state rose in oneness to salute his sagacious presence in the National Assembly, would within a second become a nonstarter? 
We all know what went wrong. The rent-taking political maggots waiting to scavenge on what rightly belongs to the people felt shortchanged. It was right that the various community based projects you either attracted to the communities in your constituency were forfeited and the baggy pockets of political godfathers are lined up with cheap cash. It would have been good representation for you to dole out undeserved cash to political louts and political pimps in place of the numerous life-changing empowerment projects you embarked upon. We understand that even those you sent abroad should not have gone anywhere so that you will be able to give car gifts to political contractors, who already had four or more ill-gotten cars packed in their garages.
If others don’t know why you have almost become a demon before these demagogues, some of us know. You did not give them cash to marry new wives and lodge girl friends in posh hotels each time they come to Abuja. Yes. You did not provide chuffer-driven cars to make their stay in Abuja cozy enough. You did not take care of their daughters’ wedding expenses. We know, because they tell us that you did not buy cows and hundreds of bags of rice to pay homage to those who own the party structures. You forgot to attend burials and even naming ceremonies. Those are your sins. It does not matter that you sent children of the poor to school. It is immaterial that many youths have had the benefit of a means of livelihood, thanks to your foresight in sending them to the Maritime Academy Oron to empower them to be useful to themselves. It does not make sense to those who are calling for your head that cooperative societies could be a veritable means of economic independence if effectively and efficiently managed, as you created some for your people. It is of no use to those waiting to hang you that you brought health facilities, libraries, ITC centers, water projects and supported many individuals that your being in the National Assembly had given the opportunity to become self reliant. 
Sir, I have a friend here. He has a testimony that would mean nothing to your adversaries. He is not even from your constituency. But he has a story of Hon Eseme Eyiboh, who saw through his circumstances and asked him what he wanted for life. Sir, Linus said he chose education and ever since that life changing encounter with you, he has been a direct beneficiary of your education empowerment, which is today seeing him through the University of Uyo. I was with you in your hotel room some day in 2010. It was some days to the Asan Ibibio declaration for Governor Akpabio. They came in, spotting the cap of Akwa Ibom Democratic Voice, ADV. Both of them were Akwa Ibom youths you have never met. You brought them, a boy and a girl into the room and asked them what they were doing for a living. They both said they were supposed to be in school, but they did not have the wherewithal to continue. Even before you asked them their name, you had expressed your desire to assist. I can still remember the looks in their eyes. The boy sir, shed some tears. I did not hear you ask them where they came from. They could have been from the moon, but all you cared about was their future.
I have no time to sing your praise, but if I had sir, I would hymn you eternally. I also have my personal testimony. It was a rainy evening sometime after the election. I did not know you were even in the court trying to reclaim your seat in the National Assembly. I only knew you were yet another victim of Nigeria’s poverty of politics and politics of poverty, where the political vultures still subvert the will of the people through some unfortunate cooptation into positions. That evening a mail arrived. I was supposed to fill the form to attend a UK based public relations course. I was shocked. You said it was a full scholarship, to be paid in pounds sterling. I was touched. This was a man that has just lost an election, so it seemed then. You did not mind the state of things then; you were still seeking to make a better person out of a man that had nothing to offer you. I had to decline the offer because it would have conflicted with my law degree programme in Uyo.
Hon Eyiboh, your life has been a light for all those you have positively impacted on. The hounds may despise you; you may be vilified by those who are perpetually in search of the ways and means of dipping their hands into public purse, even if such purse is a personal purse made available to the community.
Note sir, that I have not said a word concerning the court of appeal and its verdict. I leave that to those involved and the likely historical place it will occupy in our jurisprudence. I have faith, just like you, that at the appointed time the true verdict of God would come. I am sure that the roadblock is just a signpost to make you savour the ultimate victory when it shall come.
I am sure I have not bored you with so much political talks on this season of your birthday. It is not easy to celebrate when a man seems to be on the valley of life or career. At such points, even friends take unceremonious leave, goodwill messages dry up and jolly good fellows move to where the sun still shines. But be rest assured that even if the whole world depart, those you have touched would still remember that a man once passed through their lives. Happy birthday sir. Your light will never dim, because you will never walk alone!

POLICE NABS CHILD-WITCH SELLER IN AKWA IBOM STATE.

A 28 year old woman (name withheld) has been arrested by a special police detective team in Eket for attempting to sell a seven year old boy. A police source said in Eket.
The youngster who is said to be her stepson was, however, living with his biological mother until the father requested to take full responsibility of him. Apparently angered by the child’s arrival, the stepmother contracted a pastor to screen the little boy to ascertain if he was possessed with witchcraft spell or not. On confirmation that the boy was possessed, he was reportedly disappeared from the house.
A dependable source said a lady who operates a local Hotel in Eket, had arranged with a Port-Harcourt based child trafficking syndicate to pick the boy in a location along Uqua Road, in heart of Eket, but the late arrival of the spoiled the show, as the detectives swooped the scene and arrested the lady on a tip-off.
The community source did not confirm whether the hotel was used as a conduit for the sales of other children; but stressed that she’s been notorious for dealing with suspicious elements coming to the community.
She confessed to the police that she was scared based on the prophet’s instruction that the boy will infect her children with his magical power. When the man of God told me that he will transfer the spell to my children, or kill them, I was really afraid…,” she said.
The a police inspector in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), who did not want his name mentioned said that sales of children of Akwa Ibom origin to syndicates coming from Aba and Port-Harcourt was a common phenomenon. “They have a robust network, which keeps buying more and more children here in the State. It depends on the sex, the age of the child and the negotiation. A male child is said to be sold between N150, 000 to N170, 000 a female is between N130, 000 to N50, 000. But it varies on age.” The officer said. “Our team is monitoring them… We will get them all,” he added.
But the coordinator of a human right group, Freedom Impact International (FII), Mr. Jackson Bas, though commended the police for rescuing the child; he expressed skepticism over the willingness of the police to prosecute the culprit.
“This is not the first time they have arrested child traffickers. They have been doing so before; we know about this. How many of them have been taken to court. Police will keep them in the cell till their men will come and bail them out with money they called bond…” Bas noted.
He appealed to the government not to turn a blind eye to the torture and killing of children and elderly people who are accused of practicing witchcraft or sorcery.

Ndoma-Egba Proffers Solution to Boko Haram

Joseph Kingston, Calabar

Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba has said the threat posed by
Boko Haram would become history if the uneducated in the society are
made to acquire formal education, stressing that no educated child of
an enlightened and educated ‘big’ man in the North would be easily
used against his own people.

In a chat with Journalists in Calabar at the weekend, Ndoma-Egba
reasoned that most of those used to perpetrate violence are the
uneducated who have been brainwashed by people who are bent on
destroying the country.

He said sponsors of Boko Haram sect are “just deliberately trying to
provoke a situation to achieve a political goal”,

His words: “The act of violence in the Northern part of the country
can not be justified by any right thinking person. Moslem and
Christian Clerics have equally condemned it. The two religions have
their roots in Abraham and they preached against violence.

“For me, it is a clear case of people being brainwashed under the
guise of religion and at the same time targeting and killing Moslems
also. When you begin to attack churches, it means the motives are
certainly not religious.

“I doubt if educated children of any big man in the North would be
involved in what we are currently experiencing. When you have large
uneducated, jobless and idle young men in the society, they become
veritable tools in the hands of people who have wrong motives”, he had
said.

The Senator frowned vehemently at the escape of the Boko Haram kingpin
and called on security agents to be more committed to their
responsibilities, and expressed fears that the police have given
Nigerians enough reasons to believe that security agents are
accomplice in the whole Boko Haram brouhaha.

“The key suspect escaping in a very hilarious circumstances calls for
reassessment of roles of the police in the whole scenario. The
circumstances of the escape as reported looks like an amateur drama
script written by a member of a dramatic club in a secondary school.

“Part of the solution is when the dimension and the dynamics of this
development are highlighted. Now we are beginning to know that some of
those we thought were protecting us may be part of the problem,” he
had submitted.

He believed that Nigeria was gradually getting to the end of the
undesirable nightmare “because everything is now in the open”, but
called on all Nigerians to be security conscious and to give
information to security agents in order to nib the Boko Haram threat
in the mud.

2015 Guber: USM Supports Nsima Ekere

- Urges PDP to Adopt him
By Franklyn Isong
As the build up to 2015 governorship race in Akwa Ibom State gathers momentum with the heated debates on zoning of the gubernatorial position polarizing the polity, a group under the auspices of Unity Successive Mandate (USM) has made a case for the position to be zoned to Eket Senatorial District (Akwa Ibom South) because, according to it, the area has never produced an elected governor for the state. The group also threw it weight behind the aspiration of the State Deputy Governor, Mr. Nsima Udo Ekere, to succeed his boss, the governor in 2015.
This was contained in a statement issued by the group at the weekend which was signed by its Youth Leader, Comrade Favour Edet and made available to Weekly Insight.
The statement said that the ultimate desire of every Akwa Ibom indigene home and abroad was for people of the state to have good governance in 2015, saying that, “it is unfortunate for the system to be heated up with the un-necessary debates of zoning of governorship position because it is very clear beyond every reasonable doubt that Eket Senatorial District has never produced an elected governor for the state in the history of the state, so, it is the turn of the zone to be supported for the position in 2015.”
USM condemned what it called “overheating of the system by splinter political groups in the state,” saying, “we advised that these interest groups should give the government a break and stop distracting it with 2015 politics which is three years ahead. What should be of paramount important to every Akwa Ibom person now, should be how to support the good works of His Excellencies, the governor and his deputy, so that they can completely transform the state.”
The group commended the Governor, Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio, for what it called: “wonderful performance in the state,” urging him “not to give in to the detractors.”
The release went further to acknowledged the “supportive role of the state deputy governor, Obong Nsima Ekere, to Governor Godswill Akpabio’s transformation agenda in the state,” noting that it supports Ekere to succeed Akpabio in 2015 “so that the transformation agenda of Akpabio’s government will continue in the state.”
It called on the youths of the state to “rally round and support the deputy governor in his bid to succeed the governor in 2015,” promising that on its part, it has already commenced mass mobilization of youths across the state for Ekere’s governorship ambition.
USM said that it took the position to support Ekere after an enlarged meeting of several youth organizations last week in Uyo, the state’s capital and urged the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to “do what is right by adopting Obong Nsima Ekere for the 2015 governorship race, so that the political tempo in the state could be reduced and the unnecessary heated political debates on zoning would be laid to rest in the best interest of the state.”

Eseme Eyiboh Head to the Supreme Court

Following the Court of Appeal ruling upturning the verdict of the Abuja High Court that gave the Eket Federal Constituency seat to him, Hon Eseme Eyiboh, member of the House of Representatives representing Eket Federal Constituency has approached the nation’s apex court, The Supreme Court asking it to invalidate the ruling of the Appeal Court.
The former chairman, house committee on media, is challenging the ruling on the appeal brought to the Appeal Court by Barr Dan Abia, challenging the ruling of Justice Abdul Kafarati, on points of law and jurisdiction.
The Appeal Court had in its ruling nullified the PDP re-run primary held in Uyo. The court agreed with the lower court that the re-run did not comply with the party’s guideline as well as the 2010 Electoral Act. The Appeal Court, however, in the wisdom of the honourable justices reactivated the earlier PDP primary that the party had cancelled to arrive at its order that Barr Abia should take the contentious Eket constituency seat.
Dissatisfied with the ruling Eyiboh the same day filed a motion for stay of execution as well as a injunction restraining the Assembly leadership from carrying out the court’s order pending the outcome of the Supreme Court appeal.
In a telephone reaction, Hon Eyiboh said, “I am, as usual, calm and leaving everything in God’s hands”
The Court of Appeal had in a judgment it delivered friday, ordered the leadership of the lower chamber to forthwith swear-in the declared winner of the constituency, Mr. Dan Bassey Abia as the authentic candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the election.

In the unanimous judgment read by Justice Ayo Bada, the appellate court, maintained that “the primary election of the PDP held on the 7th and 8th January through which Dan Bassey Abia emerged as the party’s candidate for the April elections is hereby upheld as it was the primary that was monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and annexed in the suit.”
According to the court, “The trial judge erred by saying that the name of Abia be removed and replaced with that of Eyibo.
The party primary is the exclusive right of a political party as the party determines who its candidate in an election should.

PROF. OKON UYA: ECHOES OF "ORON-PHOBIA"

"Until comparatively recently the Oron people did not intermarry with Ibbi (Ibibio) for fear of contamination: first with the uncircumcised and second with the Descendants of slaves"  Prof. Okon Uya

 

 At a time like this, I cannot help but think of our good friend, late Dr. Uko Okpok: a scholars' scholar who was well versed with the Ibibio history. He would have risen to the challenge. I am hoping there are others out there who can step up to the plate. History is really not my area. There again, one does not need to be a historian to kick against a diatribe such as the above by Prof. Okon Uya whose antecedents shock no one.

 

Those who were around in the late 1970s and early 80s at the University of Calabar would recall that Prof. Uyo was, indeed, a de facto Vice Chancellor and his link or collusion with Prof. Ayandele, perhaps, the most famous UNICAL V.C. Prof. Okon Uya was in the center of these words or phrases coined by Ayandele: "Oron-phobia and Atomistic Society"? Recall the situation at then UNICAL was not unrelated with the student admission, employment, faculty and staff promotions believed to be heavily influenced by Prof. Uya. Ibibios at the university were outraged. The lopsidedness of the above led to a near crisis at UNICAL by the Ibibios who felt maltreated and marginalized: the situation that contributed to the infamous Ayandele's characterization of Cross River as the atomistic society laden with "Oron-phobia", a situation akin to the current governance in Akwa Ibom.

 

Pay Back Time?

 

In view of the above background/history, I am almost compelled to look at Prof. Uya's revisionist history as a "pay back". Here's why. In 1983, Dr. Edet Akpan Udo whose house is about half a mile from mine, published a book titled "Who Are the Ibibio?" In it, he conducted extensive research of various ethnic groups in then Cross River State that are linked to the Ibibios. The portion pertaining to Oron is reproduced below. Little did he know that the book would attract fire and brimestone from Prof. Uya. Shortly after the publication of the book, Dr. Udo was forced to retire from the University of Calabar.

 

Here it is (from p. 61 - 66 of Who are the Ibibio?):

 

"....Who are the Oron people? Do they constitute a distinct ethnic group from the Ibibio, their neighbor? Where did they come from to live in their president home? As a matter of fact, there is no absolute answer to these questions because there have never been a systematic, scientific, historical, sociological, anthropological, and ethnographical study of these people by the Oron and Ibibio themselves, and no archeological work has ever been carried out among them either. Some surmises have been made, however,  but none has been accepted by the scholars as being correct."

 

"Some people say the original home of the Oron people was in the Cameroun. Others went on to quote E. N. Amaku,Edikot Nwed Mbuk II, Chapter I which claims that Oron has mixed ancestry, that is to say, the ancestor had their father as Igbo man called Okorafo, and their mother, one Ibibio woman named Atong Ama, and both Okorafo and Aton Ama lived at Ikot Ntung, an Ibibio village nine kilometers from Eket town on the Eket-Oron trunk “A” road. Others still argue that the original home of the Oron people was in Ibibio land. Those who support the last view are the early Europeans and some Ibibio people."

 

Dr. Udo also cited the work of P.E.B. Inyang who in a paper titled “A Geographical Approach to the Study of Oron (Oro Ukpabang) People” presented at the Workshop on the People of South-Eastern Nigeria” at the Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria Nsukka on Dec. 5-8, 1972, p.2.  P.E.B. Inyang in his paper claimed that Oron people originated from the Bakweri and Bakoro people of the Western Cameroun. Among others, Dr. Udo argues that Oron people have semi-Bantu names just like other semi-Bantu names found in Ibibio (see p. 61-66). This is to say that they are a part of Ibibio believed to have emigrated from the Western Cameroun. Dr. Udo also cited the work of Chief Mbah, an Oron historian, who claimed that Oron people actually immigrated from the Palestine and traveled through Sudan to Cameroun and through upper Cross River to their present home (see pages 66-67).

 

Ibibio Origin of Oron

 

Differing from Amaoku, Dr. Udo in his extensive research came to a conclusion that the ancestor of Oron people was an Ibibio man. As evidence in support, he cited similarities in names, culture, words roots and language. In his research, he found out that at least three villages in Oron – Urua Eye, Edok Oruko, and Usung Udung Uko – worship Atakpor, Uruan’s deity in Ibibio land,  as their main deity. In page 70, Dr. Udo states that “the people of Edok Oruko state that their ancestors were immigrants from Uruan in Ibibio. The other two villages have the same tradition” (p. 70). Similar traces are made of villages of Ikpa in Eket LGA and Ekpene Ukim in Ubium that also migrated from Uruan.

 

Recommendation

 

It is good that many have reacted the way they do. My suggestion is that in addition to our individual reactions, historians among us should actually come up with books "in prints" to counter Prof. Uya's falsehood. Reason being that once his book is in circulation, references will always be made of it by others regardless of the misleading information expressed therein. A counter information in a book form will go a long way to minimize the misinformation. Prof. Okon Uya owes the Ibibios a good explanation.

 

Sincerely, 

Dr. Tom Mbeke-Ekanem, REA 

Tom:

 

Thank you for reviving this matter. Like you, I am not a historian, so, any comment from me would be based on what I may describe as a lay-man's academic awareness (please take note, not knowledge) of Ibibio history. Though the write-up about the book by Uya was not written by me, I am the one who forwarded it to the forum. And I noted that I reserved my comment until I read the book purportedly written by Prof. Okon Uya.

 

My reaction to this story is just to add sources to the ones you have already posted. In Chapter Eight ofIkono: The Cradle of Ibibio Nation, written by David Ukpong, et al, states as follows (please pay attention to how the same Prof. Uya is being quoted in the narration);

 

"The Oron people have been described by Noah (1980) as sea-borne Ibibio when he writes ' Among these sea-borne Ibibio would be included the Oron, Eket, and Ibeno people who, upon their arrival moved northwards and eastwards until they came up against the Eastern Ibibio expanding southwards.'"

 

"There are three accounts of the origin and migration of Oron people to their present location. A source quoted by Uya (1984) reports that four groups of Ebrutu reached Uruan from Ibom (in Arochukwu) and later migrated from Uruan to Obutong in Calabar from where they crossed the river to their present site in Oron."

 

"The second account of origin of the Oron people, which is also stated by Professor Okon Edet Uya (1984:18), maintains that Oron and Ibibio were once neighbors living in Igboland and their movement away from there was part of the general dispersal from the Akwa-Orlu centre. According to this account, the Ibibio, Oron, and Okobo moved from there southwards towards the coast. The Ibibio (Central Ibibio including the Annang) settled firts while the Okobo and the Oron continued their movement towards the Atlantic Ocean, passing through Andoni, Eket, and Ebughu in the process."

 

"The third account, which is becoming increasingly popular in scholarly circles and widely quoted even by the Oron people themselves, according to Chief Okon Effiong Emana, village head of Ikono-Offi group, states that after the great dispersal at Ibom in Arochukwu, the Oron group moved towards the Cameroons and the wave of their migration took  a different route from the other Ibibio. Eventually, they settled in Usak Edet, now in the Cameroons. Later on, the migrants crossed the river on rafts, landed at what is today Oron beach (Esuk Oron) and spread from there."

 

"What the first account appears to suggest is that Oron is a section of Ibibio Uruan. Edet A. Udo (1983) who also holds this view explains that the Uruan people founded fishing settlements at Oron, Ine, and Uruan Ekpe (now in Cameroons) and that the southwards part of Uruan expansion was into Oron area."

 

Readers can go to the source and read more on this. I mplore experts and those interested in this story to dig more in order to set the records stright for the benefits of future generations.

 

Ikpafak Thompson Essien

Portland, Oregon

The Race for (2011) Governorship Election is Still On

Contrary to general assumptions, as evidenced by telephone calls and personal emails I have received, the court case between ACN and PDP, which was held today (January 26) at Uyo was not postponed. What happened is that the PDP asked the Tribunal to dismiss the contention brought by the ACN on technical reasons. According to PDP, the original 180 days, or six months, apportioned to listen to the case had expired since November 15, 2011; therefore, it is wrong for the Tribunal to entertain the matter. Each side tendered arguments on the matter. The court will return from deliberations on February 7 (2012) to issue its rulings.

 

Experts say the Tribunal will have to decide on one of two decisions; side with the request of the PDP and throw away the case on technicalities or dismiss the petition of PDP for lack of merits. If the PDP argument is rejected, the case will then go to trial. 

 

It may be recalled that there are precedents to guide the Tribunal in making a decision. For example, in a similar case, which involved Nsima Umoh and Senator Ita Enang, the PDP lawyers made a similar argument that the 180 days had expired. The Tribunal in Uyo sided with the PDP and dismissed the petition brought by Mr. Nsima Umoh (ACN). Nsima Umoh filed an appeal with the Appeal Court in Calabar. Yesterday----just yesterday (January 25, 2012) ---the Appeal Court in Calabar overturned the ruling of the Tribunal in Uyo, in favor of Nsima Umoh. What this means is that the Tribunal in Uyo has no choice but to set a date, in which both sides will have to come in and present arguments as to whom actually won the Senatorial position for Uyo District.

 

On the matter of the dispute of the governorship election between Senator Akpan Udoedehe and Mr. Godswill Akpabio, analysts say the PDP is just using the 180-day argument to buy time. All the analysts contacted agreed that the petition submitted by the PDP will not hold water. One analyst said, "even if the lower court agrees with the PDP, it is very certain that the Appeal Court will overturn it, just as it has done in the case of Nsima Umoh versus Senator Ita Enang."

 

There are those who may wonder why Mr. Akpabio and the PDP are fighting so hard to make sure that the dispute does not go to trial. Insiders say what the PDP and Akpabio are scared of are the available unexpected and unprecedented evidence that were submitted by the ACN to the Tribunal as proofs that Akpabio and his Party blatantly rigged the gubernatorial election of April 26, 2011.

 

According to a reliable source, who was involved in collating all the evidence sent to the Tribunal, "If you see what (evidence) we shipped to the Tribunal, you will be amazed. It took three truck-loads to transport all the materials to the Tribunal. Among them were videos and still-photos in compact discs that would prove how the entire election was rigged. We even have the 2007, yes 2007, ballot papers that Akpabio supporters stuffed in ballot boxes just to increase the number of votes for him. We also went around the entire State and collected the ACN ballot papers that PDP supporters stole and scattered everywhere. Well, I cannot be more specific than this because I don't want to give out too much information."

 

While Mr. Akpabio may not have the opportunity to see all those evidence, sources say PDP lawyers have disclosed their existence to Akpabio. This may explain why PDP and Akpabio are fighting tooth and nail to have the case dismissed on technical reasons. Such a dismissal would put an end to all those evidence being disclosed to the public. According to another insider, "people keep talking about bribing the judges. I can assure you that once the judges have the opportunity to see all the evidence, by the time the case ends, they will be so overwhelmed that even if they (the judges) had taken bribes from Akpabio, they would have no choice but to return those bribes."

 

However, no matter how one looks at the matter, the truth is that the Akwa Ibom State Governorship Election is still an on-going business. While Mr. Akpabio is still basking himself in glory as the Governor, no one should be surprised if one day, the verdict comes in to say "you are out!" Akpabio must go and Akpabio will go; it’s only a matter of time.

 

Written by

Ikpafak Thompson Essien

The Voice of the Poor Masses

Defender of the Oppressed

Social Critic

A native of Ibibio nation of Ubium Republic extraction, now living in the safe and beautiful city of Portland, Oregon, where no AKPF, ADUMA, ADV, and Akwa Ibom State politicians can reach.