Breaking News: Stay away from Buhari’s rally, Udoedehe tells supporters

Senator John Udoedehe

By Nse Peter

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. John Akpan Udoedehe has allegedly instructed his supporters in the State to boycott the party’s Presidential Rally that is taking place in the state this Tuesday.

John Akpan Udoedehe, a former senator who represented Uyo Senatorial District, is said to be aggrieved that Mr. Umana Okon Umana who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) few weeks to the APC primaries was able to defeat him to emerge as the governorship candidate of the party.

Think Akwa Ibom! gathered that Udoedehe, on Monday evening, invited his APC supporters across the state to his house in Uyo, and instructed them not to attain the Uyo rally of the APC presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, scheduled to take place in the Uyo Township Stadium on Tuesday. A modest crowd of APC supporters, mostly youths, turned up for the meeting in Udoedehe’s place, a source who was present at the meeting told Think Akwa Ibom!

Four other persons contacted by Think Akwa Ibom! confirmed that the meeting took place, and that they too were in attendance.

The former senator was said to have given out in the meeting N10,000 and a bag of rice to each of the wards in the state.

One youth leader from Uyo who attended the meeting said he suspected that Udoedehe’s latest move against APC was sponsored by a former finance commissioner in Akwa Ibom State and the PDP’s candidate for Uyo Senatorial District election, Mr. Bassey Albert Akpan.

“I’m without any doubt that Bassey Albert must have been behind that meeting. The senator was giving people money and bags of rice, and at the same time was telling us to support Bassey Albert for senate. If you were in my position, won’t think that Bassey Albert has a hand in what was going on?” the youth leader told Think Akwa Ibom!

The youth leader who did not want his name mentioned in the story for fear of getting into the bad books of Senator Udoedehe was however not categorical whether he was going to be there at the APC’s rally or not.

Interestingly, the PDP candidate for Uyo Senatorial District election, Bassey Albert Akpan placed a newspaper advert on Monday, on the eve of Buhari’s visit to Akwa Ibom State, where he subtly pleaded with the people not to abandon President Goodluck Jonathan. “As a people, our political ideology has never been leftist. We have always been in the mainstream politics of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and breaking away from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party as 2015 election beckons should never be an option for Akwa Ibom people,” Bassey Albert Akpan said in the advert which was published in The Nation newspaper.