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| 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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