The Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr Aniekan Umanah has carpeted all the allegations raised by the former ACN gubernatorial candidate, Senator John Akpanudoedeghe, describing the allegations as spurious and maliciously intended.
Mr. Umanah, who was reacting to Udoedeghe’s
outburst on a radio programme and in some local tabloids, hinted that “the
commencement of political activities towards the 2015 general elections, marks
the return of political blackmailers whose stock in trade is to bandy
falsehood and verbal attacks against the State government and perceived
political opponents.” He described Udoedeghe’s recent tirade as “unfortunate
lamentations of a sad man”.
The Commissioner wondered why Udoedeghe, with a sorry
profile of a disgraced local government chairman, an unproductive stint at the
Senate, a wasted brief sojourn at the federal executive council and a failed
bid to become the governor of the state, would not face his chequered history
and leave Governor Akpabio alone.
Mr Umanah maintained that after his monumental
disappointing stints at several positions of authority, it is not surprising
that Udoedeghe’s people have lost faith and confidence in him for wasting
their time and opportunities.
“For a man who was defeated by a wide margin of
almost a million and serial judicial confirmations, to turn around and claim
that he won the governorship election, opens a chapter in the study of senility
and portrays him as a man in need of psychological examination.”
While describing the media outburst as Udoedeghe’s
stock in trade, Mr Umanah wondered why such a supposedly highly placed citizen,
could try to deceive the public by misrepresenting revenues accruing to the
State from the federation account. He maintained that the Governor had no
regret for investing in numerous live-changing projects, which Udoedeghe
himself acknowledged, as reported in one of the tabloids, and reiterated that
the era of sharing the State’s revenue among few powerful individuals was over.
The Commissioner described as careless and
libelous, Udoedeghe’s frequent allusion to unconfirmed figures in his
interviews, and dared the former Minister of State for the FCT to provide facts
to back up his claims rather than empty media ranting.
On the empowerment of the people and development of the
State, Mr. Umanah explained that Chief Akpabio has meticulously complied with
the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, with his resort to food sufficiency
through his various agric development and youth /women empowerment programmes,
education, healthcare and sanitation, among others, and challenged
Udoedehe to enlighten the populace on what he has ever done for the people
throughout his years of sojourn in public offices.
He also advised Senator Udoedeghe to take advantage
of the various media channels at his disposal to convince his few foot soldiers
who are on his neck for explanations on the disappearance of over billions of
naira that was meant for the 2011 campaigns of his failed party.
The commissioner who desribed Udoedeghe as a merchant
of gangsterism, said people of Akwa Ibom would not forget in a hurry, the
mayhem he brought upon them in March 2011, relics of the which he noted,
remained in the destroyed 500 brand new taxis and tricycles, at the State
Sectretariat, meant to empower the people by the purposeful leadership of Chief
Akpabio.
Mr. Umanah added that it was disappointing for a
supposed senior citizen to degenerate to making unfounded and wild allegations,
and dragging names of members of the governor’s family into his hate chain,
instead of making meaningful contributions to the development of the State he
claimed to love so much.
No comments:
Post a Comment