Friday 23 January 2015

Oro People Reject Udom, Shun PDP Campaign at Okobo – Peace Letters newspaper

File photo: Mr. Udom Emmanuel (middle), with his running mate, Mr. Moses Ekpo (left) and Governor Godswill Akpabio (right)

By Nse Peter
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship campaign in Akwa Ibom State suffered a major setback, Thursday, at Okobo Local Government Area, with the people in the area boycotting the party’s rally, Peace Letters has reported.


Peace Letters, a community newspaper in Akwa Ibom State, is owned by Otuekong Nathaniel Uyo, a PDP chieftain from Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area. The paper in its current weekend edition reports that PDP leaders, including Governor Godswill Akpaboio, his wife, Unoma, and the governor’s protégé and PDP governorship candidate, Mr. Udom Emmanuel were gripped with fears when they saw the scanty crowd that attended the Okobo campaign rally held in the football pitch of a primary school in the area.
The Paper reports, “The party leadership as well as other PDP faithful was reportedly bewildered at the development as they observed that it was one rare PDP rally where attendees could be counted and some canopies visibly empty.

“Our correspondent reported that those in charge of protocol and the entire organisation were practically pleading with those at the primary school field where the rally took place to draw closer for the event to kick off.
“It was also reported that even the few who attended were tactically avoiding the camera and the cameramen resorted to close up shots to create some effects and save the party some embarrassment,” the paper reported.

Peace Letters reported that most of the people the paper spoke with said they were avoiding the camera picking their faces because they didn’t want to be identified with Udom Emmanuel’s campaign ‘so as not to incur the wrath of the Oro people who have reportedly vowed not to identify with the Udom’s project”.
One Okobo politician who spoke at the rally gave a condition that an Okobo indigene must be appointed as a commissioner into the State Executive Council by Governor Godswill Akpabio before they could support the PDP governorship candidate, the paper reported.

The relationship between PDP and the Oro people have deteriorated to the lowest level ever, since Mr. Udom Emmanuel emerged as the party’s candidate for the governorship election in Akwa Ibom State. The Oro people believe that Governor Godswill Akpabio forced Udom Emmanuel on the party as their candidate, and thereby shortchanging Oro from being positioned to produce a governor of the state for the first time, after Ibibio and Annang ethnic group had taken their turn.
The general thinking in Akwa Ibom State is that the five local government areas – Oron, Okobo, Urue-Offong/Oruko, Mbo and Udung-Uko – that make up the Oro may vote massively for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in next month governorship election, as a protest against PDP. Besides, the APC governorship candidate in the State, Mr. Umana Okon Umana picked an Oro man, Engr. Ben Ukpong, as his running mate.

But the PDP appears not to be shaken by the political threat posed by the Oro, as the party is banking on massive votes from the Annang speaking local government areas, because of Governor Akpabio’s influence, to offset the Oro factor.
“It should be known that the five LGAs of Oro have less than the votes of Oruk Anam,” Mr. Uwem Umanah, the younger brother of the Akwa Ibom Commissioner for Information, Mr. Aniekan Umanah, stated recently in an email he sent to Internet discussion groups like Ibom Chronicle, Talk Hard, Ibom Global and Naija Observer, while dismissing the political significance of Oro throwing their weight behind APC in the forthcoming governorship election in Akwa Ibom State.

Uwem Umanah, from the same Annang ethnic group with Governor Godswill Akpabio, works as a media assistant to his older brother, Aniekan Umanah and the Commissioner for Housing and Urban Renewal, Barr. Emmanuel Enoidem.
Click here, to read Think Akwa Ibom! exclusive, A’Ibom 2015: PDP can win governorship without Oro’s support – Uwem Umanah, younger brother of Akwa Ibom Commissioner for Information, Aniekan Umanah

 

 

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