Don Etim story: I can’t protect you, Akwa Ibom CP tells PUNCHman

Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba

By Etim Ekpimah

The Commissioner of Police, Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Gabriel Achong, has said he has no business protecting the PUNCH correspondent in the state, Mr. Etim Ekpimah, from strange people threatening his life.

Achong stated this while speaking with the reporter on the telephone on Monday following a threat message the correspondent forwarded to Achong from one Mr. Martin Akpan who had threatened to use force in collaboration with others he did not name, to get the correspondent out of the state.
The threat message from Akpan, which was sent to former Saturday PUNCH Editor, Mr. Emeka Madunagu, read, “Hi, Etim. One guy, Martin Akpan, called me today to complain about your story in today’s Punch(Sunday). He said they will make you leave Akwa Ibom by force. His number is 08163192421.”
Sunday PUNCH had on March 15, published a story entitled, ‘Akwa Ibom: State where commissioners, others, kneel for Akpabio’s wife.”
The story, ex-rayed how the state Commissioner for Works, Mr. Don Etim, knelt to talk to Akpabio’s wife despite that there were vacant seats beside the governor’s wife, during a PDP campaign rally.
The story went further to tell how a member in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, representing Mbo State Constituency, Mrs. Alice Ekpenyong, knelt before the governor’s wife at the Independent National Electoral Commission office, Uyo, where they were being presented with the certificates of return in 2011.
Also a Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Dr. Glory Edet, was recently seen fanning her during the presentation of the 2015 Appropriation Bill to the House of Assembly.
On Monday, however, the correspondent got a bitter dose of the police commissioner’s venom, when Achong pointedly accused the PUNCHman of collecting money from opposition parties to write the story.
He noted that the kneeling down by the commissioner was not the journalist’s business, but rather a sign of respect to the Akwa Ibom State governor’s wife.
The CP said, “You are on your own. I do not have any business protecting you. This is how you people go about causing troubles. You have brought serious embarrassment to the man(Etim) and his family.
“If you want to talk with your madam in your office, do you stand to talk with her? Anybody can kneel down for another as a sign of respect.
“This is none of your business. I do not care about what happens to you. If you have collected money from those who asked you to write the story, why did you not tell them that you cannot write?”
The correspondent had received many calls from strange individuals, threatening to deal with him for bringing the state works commissioner into disrepute.

Culled from The Punch newspaper