The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Akwa Ibom

  • Police arrest two over rival cult clashes in A’Ibom

    The police in Akwa Ibom have confirmed the arrest of two persons in connection with rival cult clashes which occurred between on Wednesday in Urua Ekpa community, situated in the outskirts of Uyo, the state capital.

    The clashes, our correspondent learnt, involved members of the Vikings and Iceland Confraternities leading to unconfirmed reports that five persons had lost their lives.

    It was also gathered that a fight over a girl between a member of Vikings and that of Iceland sparked up the crisis.

    But the state police spokesperson, Odiko MacDon DSP quickly debunked the deaths; saying only two persons have been arrested in connection with the fracas.

    The clash caused many people their phones, hand bags, jewelries, money and other variables as they scampered for safety. Many shops within the vicinity of the incidence were locked by the owners.

    Some of the cult members dressed in red apparel and armed with guns were seen moving around the area in search of their rivals.

    Heavily armed Policemen from ‘E’ Division have been dispatched to the area by the Akwa Ibom State Police Command.

    One of the eyewitnesses, a male who preferred to remain unnamed said “at about 9pm on Tuesday when I was returning home from the market, I heard a gunshot down the street and I thought it was a motor tyre bursting but after some time, I heard another gunshot, then I knew something was wrong.

    “A few minutes later, I heard people running and creaming for their lives and by this time the gunshots were everywhere, there was sporadic shooting.

    READ ALSO: Akwa Ibom officials challenge arrest order

    “Since yesterday this area has been under serious security threat, we couldn’t sleep last night. Three persons including one of our neighbours have been killed,” he said.

    Another witness, Akpan, who runs a barbing saloon along Urua Ekpa road, Ata Idung, said “There was a big problem here in this village; those guys were a big problem for all of us here yesterday. They continued this morning and I can confirm to you that two persons have died in this our street.

    “I was preparing to come to my barbing saloon this morning when a group of guys started chasing our neighbour from here. They later caught up with him down the Street, where they mercilessly murdered him”.

    Initial efforts to get the Police Public Relations Officer, Odiko Macdon, to confirm the clash failed as he did not pick his phone calls or respond to text messages sent but he later responded through a text message.

    He said, “The Akwa Ibom Police Command received a distress call about a clash between two rival cult groups around Urua Ekpa area. The Commissioner of Police ordered immediate deployments. Two persons have been arrested, no life confirmed loss.

    “Investigation is ongoing but normalcy has been restored. However, the Command will not tolerate any act from any quarters that will truncate the peaceful disposition of the State. Those concern must desist forthwith”.

  • A’Ibom plans legislation to curb spread of HIV/AIDS

    Worried by its number one position in the HIV/AIDS index in the country, Akwa Ibom state government says it will push for legislation to curb the spread of the dreaded disease and protect infected persons.

    Findings by the Nigeria AIDS Indicator and Impact survey carried out throughout the country in the third and fourth quarter of 2018 revealed that Akwa Ibom State has a HIV prevalence of 5.5% against the National prevalence of 1.4% for the age group 15 to 64years.

    The Commissioner of Health Dr Dominic Ukpong, in a statement in Uyo said the executive arm of government will cause the legislature come up with a law to stem the HIV/AIDS status in the state.

    Ukpong said government will not fold its arms, adding that the state average dropped from 8.8 percent to 5.5 percent from 2014 to 2018.

    “The last nationally accepted HIV survey, prior to the NAIIS survey in 2018 was the ANC SENTINEL study in 2014 and the National prevalence was 3% while Akwa Ibom state prevalence was 10.8%.

    “Arguably as it is being reported that the national prevalence has dropped from 3% (2014) to 1.4% (2018), similarly that of Akwa Ibom State has dropped from 10.8% (2014) to 5.5% (2018). ”

    The commissioner however attributed the high value attached to the state to demographic and cultural factors including its coastal location, friendly environment and friendly disposition of the people.

    “The location of the state with a large coastal front of 129 Km stretching from Ikot Abasi to Oron, an airport, good road network peaceful atmosphere, friendly disposition of our people, good cuisines and fast developing economy has made our state the destination of choice for both national and international visitors.

    “All these are not without attendant public health consequences, like transmission of communicable diseases which HIV/AIDS cannot be excluded,” The statement said.

    The state government Ukpong said would however step up collaboration through the Akwa Ibom State Agency for the Control of AIDS and Akwa Ibom State HIV /AIDS and STI Control Progamme with Implementing Partners, Faith Based Organizations, People Living with HIV/ AIDs, and other stakeholders towards proffering immediate and long term interventions.

    According to the commissioner, the immediate measures would include increasing access to HIV testing services and increasing access to treatment by creating three new comprehensive treatment centres, one in each of the three Senatorial Districts in the State, empowering the State Primary Health Care Development Board to kick-start activities, embarking on state wide community outreaches and enlightenment campaigns to create demand for the uptake of HIV services and srategising for effective intervention among drivers of new infections in line with the new national strategic frame work 2019- 2023.

    The long term measures he said would include advocacy to LGAs and the State Assembly to put in place laws to protect people living with HIV and to curb transmission of new infections, by expeditiously deliberating and passing the bill on Anti Stigma and Discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS.

    It would also include initiating the process of developing a bill to prosecute persons found to willfully infect or transmit the virus to other people.

  • Akwa Ibom: How underdog tag helped Emmanuel

    When the going got tough, Governor Udom Emmanuel, a former Sunday school teacher at the Qua Iboe Church and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 9 governorship election in Akwa Ibom State, introduced a religious dimension to the campaign, to whip up sentiment. Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI, who monitored the election in the South-South state, reports.

    BEFORE the March 9 governorship election in Akwa Ibom State, Governor Udom Emmanuel was clearly seen as the underdog in the contest. That was the impression that assailed the reporter, as he moved round Uyo, the state capital, trying to feel the pulse of the people on the streets. His main challenger, the All Progressives Congress (APC) flag bearer, Obong Nsima Ekere, appeared to have an edge. Campaign posters of the APC candidate were all over the town and his billboards were everywhere, at strategic locations in the capital. Emmanuel on who contested on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) looked like a drowning man.

    One taxi driver aptly captured the mood on the streets when he told the reporter that the two candidates had a 50/50 chance of winning the election. Nevertheless, other taxi drivers who spoke were categorical in their views that, with Akwa Ibom being a PDP state, Emmanuel would carry the day. But at the time it sounded unbelievable. The trend of conversation at newspaper stands around Ibom Plaza, the hub of the city, was tilted in favour of the APC candidate.

    For instance, a day before the election, an elder in The Apostolic Church and a newspaper distributor, Mr. Effiong Etukudoh, had predicted confidently that Ekere will win the election, “based on the word of God”. Etukudoh who sells newspapers at a strategic spot around Ibom Plaza said the Lord revealed to him as far back as 2017 that the APC flag bearer will emerge as the governor of the state in 2019, a time the former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was not even in contention for the position.

    He said: “What I want to tell you is that when God says this is what is going to happen, nobody can stop it. The PDP in Akwa Ibom plays politics of blindness, because they close their eyes to the realities of the day. I got this revelation in 2017 and I told people here that Nsima Ekere would become governor of Akwa Ibom State on 2019. By that time, he had not even mentioned that he was going to contest in 2019.

    “So, when the primary came last year, everybody expected Senator John Udoedehe to win the ticket, because he is somebody that is well known. But, I told them that the person that would emerge as the APC flag bearer is Nsima Ekere.”

    Etukudoh said he was not certain that the governorship and House of Assembly elections would be concluded in Akwa Ibom State, as well as in Imo State, where Governor Rochas Okorocha had been insisting that his son in law, Uche Nwosu, would succeed him. The prophet added: “It is not even certain that elections will hold in Imo tomorrow. The problem that will rear its head will not make the election hitch-free like the presidential and National Assembly elections.”

    It is believed that the defection of the former Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, in August 2018 influenced the last governorship election in Akwa Ibom. At the time, it was perceived as a heavy blow on Governor Emmanuel, because he was seen as a rooky politician who does not have the political sagacity and the structure to guarantee his re-election for a second term. In the wake of this development, a succession of political aides, former chapter chairmen and an entire structure of the party in Essien Udim, Akpabio’s local government area, defected to the APC.

    Like a drowning man, Governor Emmanuel, whose campaign for re-election was anchored on his administration’s industrialisation drive and a peaceful Akwa Ibom where everyone is guaranteed the freedom for self-actualisation, was clutching at anything within reach. His campaign slogan, ‘only God’, suggested that he had resigned himself to fate that only the Lord can save him from defeat.

    It was apparent to many observers that Emmanuel, a former Sunday school teacher at the Qua Iboe Church, had introduced a religious dimension to the campaign. His campaign organization is known as the “Divine Mandate Campaign Organisation”. Observers said he never failed to acknowledge his human frailty and that he needed supernatural help to contend with a collection of men who are too powerful for him throughout the campaign.

    There was no doubt that he got sympathy votes from the people of Akwa Ibom who questioned the sudden turnaround of Akpabio. People queued behind him for his perceived effort to break away from the apron strings of Akpabio. Indeed, they say whatever Emmanuel has become it was Akpabio who foisted him on the state.

    Incidentally, most of the residents who spoke to the reporter after Emmanuel’s victory blamed Akpabio for the APC’s woes in the state this time around. They say the  way the boastful manner the former governor promised to deliver the state for his new party, following his defection, did not go down well with the people of Akwa Ibom.

    They see the former Senate Minority Leader as a loud and arrogant personality and that he has made a lot of enemies in both the PDP and the APC who would not be happy to see him playing the role of a godfather in Akwa Ibom politics.

    On election day, the reporter set out early. After monitoring some polling units in the capital, he headed straight to Emmanuel’s hometown of Awa Iman, a community located a few kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean, in Onna Local Government, passing through Ibesikpo Asutan and Etinan local governments and got there just as the governor was arriving at his polling unit located at the Awa Iman Town Hall.

    Emmanuel and his wife, Martha, voted at about 9:15 am. He told reporters afterwards that he could not use the peaceful and orderly conduct of elections in his unit to conclude that the exercise was free and fair, so far. He said: “In terms of preliminary reports, I think it’s a little bit early to assess the situation. I will go to the situation room to find out what is happening.

    “But so far so good, the accreditation, authentication has been smooth today, based on my own personal experience. I think I need to check with others to find out the situation all over the state. But by mid-day, I should be able to give you more authentic report on this.”

    He thanked Akwa Ibom people for coming out to vote and the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) for improving on the effectiveness of the Card Readers, compared to the presidential and the National Assembly elections, which took place two weeks earlier.

    At his polling unit located within the Community Secondary Commercial School, Ikot Ebere, Onna Local Government, the governor’s campaign coordinator in the council, Mr. Ephraim Inyang, hailed the exercise, saying the tension that had enveloped the state on the eve of the election was a social media phenomenon.

    Inyang, who is also the Commissioner for Works, commended security agencies, said: “The tension that enveloped the state on the eve of this election is restricted to the social media. People are out in their numbers to vote, because they have realised the need to come and exercise their civic duties. The voting process was smooth; people were coming out freely to vote and that it’s been quite peaceful.

    “If what I have observed in Ikot Ebere in particular and Onna in general is replicated in all the local governments of Akwa Ibom State, then the election could be considered as the most peaceful election ever conducted in Akwa Ibom State, because there are no incidences; the military are patrolling, they are not even entering the voting area.

    At the Ukan Edemaya village square, Ikot Abasi Local Government Area, near the APC candidate’s country home, there was a long line of prospective voters at Polling Unit 006, Ward 1, which has a voting population of 1,366 registered voters. The head of the unit said accreditation and voting started at 10am, due to the delay in collecting from the INEC office.

    An APC stalwart, Ubeh Edidiong, who spoke to The Nation said the exercise has been peaceful at Ukan Edemaya, which delivered a large number of votes for President Muhammadu Buhari two weeks earlier. He added that he had received reports of pockets of disturbances in other places. But Edidiong, a legal practitioner, said that is perhaps why the Federal Government considered it wise to deploy the military to the state to keep peace.

    Accreditation and voting started late at the polling unit of APC leader Umana Okon Umana at Unit 1, Ward 4, Indiya, Nsit Uboum Local Government, due to the late arrival of materials. An APC agent said the process of accreditation and voting started at 11am, after the arrival of materials. The Managing Director of the Oil & Gas Free Zone Authority said everything went well in the three voting points with a voting strength of 1,800 registered voters.

    In all, the March 9 governorship election in Akwa Ibom State was not really a tough election battle, as many people anticipated, as Emmanuel won convincingly in 30 out the 31 local government areas; he lost only in Essien Udim, Senator Akpabio’s local government. It was also not a bloody election as many had feared, except for pockets of violence here and there.

    Nevertheless, it was a dramatic scene at the state collation centre, as the APC state agent, Archbishop Samuel Akpan, rejected the results of one local government after another won by the PDP, saying they do not reflect the will of the people of Akwa Ibom, as expressed during the election.

    He said the exercise was married by massive rigging and that his party would not accept the outcome of the exercise. Akpan said most of the Collation Officers for the various local governments are card-carrying members of the PDP and were commissioned to achieve a pre-determined outcome.

    The APC only won in Essien Udim, though INEC cancelled the result in nine out of the 11 wards in the council. The collation officer for the local government, Nsikan Esenam, said voting in Akpabio’s ward, Ukana West Ward 2, and other wards in the area were marred by violence, hijacking of ballot boxes, and kidnap of election officials.

  • Former INEC REC wants number of political parties reduced

    A former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Edo State, Mr Aniedi Ikoiwak, has called for a reduction of the number of political parties in the country.

    Ikoiwak made the call in Eket, Akwa Ibom on Monday while reviewing the just concluded general elections across the country.

    He said that there should be a legislative amendment of the Electoral Act pruning the number of political parties to two or five.

    He said a situation where over 100 political parties were registered for an election when only two or three of such parties had massive followers was cumbersome and a waste of resources.

    “The ballot papers in the just concluded general elections were littered with names of parties that could best be described as village associations with no national coverage as stipulated by law,” he said.

    Ikoiwak said that some voters found it difficult to locate the logos of their preferred parties during the elections.

    According to him, there was a remarkable improvement in the just concluded polls which he described as credible.

    The former REC said that in few years from now, INEC would be the toast of Africa in election matters.

    He added that the problems faced by INEC in the 2019 general elections were caused by desperate politicians.

    “The way INEC is improving with each passing election, I foresee a situation where it will be difficult for a non performing governor or representative to have a second term.

    Read Also: Blame politicians, not INEC, for inconclusive elections

    “This is because the people’s votes will not only count but will be seen as having counted,” he said.

    Ikoiwak further said that the country was politically and technologically ripe for electronic voting and called on politicians not to drag INEC and the Nigeria’s democratic journey backwards.

    “Politicians in the country want to drag our democratic journey backwards by trying to set the rules at variance with the ethical standards of INEC, “Ikoiwak said.

    NAN

  • Akpabio approaches tribunal to reclaim mandate

    The candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC) for Akwa Ibom North West senatorial district, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has approached the election tribunal sitting in Uyo to commence legal processes to challenge his loss at February 23 senatorial election.

    The suit at the tribunal was filed on the 16th of March by his lawyer, Mr. Sunday Ameh SAN, followed Senator Akpabio’s withdrawal of the case he earlier filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

    The case at the Federal High Court had sought to challenge his Senate re-election loss.

    Akpabio is seeking to upturn the victory of Christopher Ekpenyong and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) based on perceived electoral irregularities which characterised the said election.

    The former Senate Minority Leader, had while the election was ongoing, besieged the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), alleging cases of infractions and deliberate violations of the electoral law and guidelines during the senatorial election.

    In the said election, INEC had allegedly in collaboration with some PDP chieftains in the senatorial district, wrongfully declared Ekpeyong and his party, the PDP, winner of the poll, having scored 118,215 as against Akpabio’s 83,158.

    Read Also: Ogun APC to banks: don’t approve Amosun’s loan requests

    However, Ameh SAN said the result sheets from Akwa Ibom INEC office showed different figures that had Akpabio securing 138,256 votes as against Ekpeyong’s 123,843.

    Akpabio’s counsel said his client is dissatisfied with the conduct and outcome of the election.

    ”The former governor of Akwa Ibom and his party has approached the election petition tribunal to ventilate their grievances as well as reclaim their stolen mandate.”

  • A’Ibom is HIV/AIDS most prevalent state – Survey

    Akwa Ibom has overtaken Benue in the HIV/AIDS index, making it the state with highest prevalence rate in Nigeria, the Nigerian HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Assessment Survey (NAIIS) has revealed.

    The findings released last week by the National Action Committee for the Control of AIDS (NACA) showed that 5.5percent of the people are living with HIV/AIDS in Akwa Ibom state followed by Benue with about 5.3 percent.

    The state epidemiologist and convener Doctors for Udom, Dr. Aniekeme Uwah, who disclosed this at the weekend, said the current HIV/AIDS status was capable of adversely affecting direct foreign investment into the state.

    Uwah said it was unfortunate that the state government’s industrialization policy could be adversely affected as the result of the survey was authentic coming from very reputable research organizations with support from the United States of America (USA).

    ”The government of Nigeria, with the support of the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief(PEPFAR), Malaria Global Fund and other development partners with technical assistance from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) conducted by NAAIS one of the largest population-based HIV/AIDS household survey in the world.

    ”While the result showed that fewer people in Nigeria were living with HIV/AIDS with a drop in the prevalence rate from 3.16% in 2014 to 1.4% meaning that 1.9million persons now live with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, the world’s largest black nation, leading to a drop to the 4th position in the global HIV prevalence rate after South Africa, Mozambique and India.

    ”Therefore, as patriotic Akwa Ibomites, this is not the time to for blame games, rather all hands must be in deck because if you are not infected, you are affected.

    ”By so doing, we will take our state from the infamous position which is capable of increasing the morbidity and mortality rates in the state.

    ”It is also capable of decimating our workforce and adversely affecting the policies of government geared towards driving foreign direct investment (FDI) and human traffic to the state to boost our tourism industry,” Uwah said.

     

  • Akwa Ibom Assembly passes N672b budget for 2019

    The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has passed the 2019 “Budget of Industrialisation and Poverty Alleviation” into law. The budget has a total outlay of N672,984,760,760.

    The House also passed the Akwa Ibom Youth Development Fund Bill into law.

    The Speaker, Onofiok Luke, said the budget was an economic transition proposal which will support the completion agenda of the Governor Udom Emmanuel-led administration.

    He said: “While this is the last budget that we have the privilege to legislate on as the sixth assembly, it stands as the pioneer economic blueprint for the proposed Completion Agenda of the next four years.

    Read also: Registration begins for Interswitch SPAK 2.0 competition

    “As a legislature, we have reviewed the key components of the appropriation law, weighing them against the policy objectives which leverage the short and long term development ambitions of government.

    “To meet salient socio-economic agenda of government, which includes infrastructural development, job creation, and revenue generation, the budget size was increased by a little over N2 billion.

    “Our overall objective is to ensure priority is given to areas of immediate importance to the people while we pursue the larger goal of full-scale industrialisation.”

  • My accusers are those who wanted to buy me over – Igini

    More startling revelations are still emerging from the controversies generated by the outcome of the general elections which held in Akwa Ibom state on the 23rd of February and 9th of March respectively.

    Mike Igini, the resident national electoral commissioner in Akwa Ibom has been in the eye of the storm over the outcome of the elections.

    Leaders of the All Progressives Congress(APC) in the state have challenged the victory of Governor Udom Emmanuel, saying Igini colluded with the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) to rig the elections in favour of the umbrella party.

    But Igini in a telephone interview with the Nation in Uyo last night said his accusers are the very people who tried unsuccessfully to buy him over so that he would compromise his integrity and constitutional responsibility to superintend over a free and fair electoral process.

    Though he did not mention names of those who tried to lure him into shifting grounds on the elections, he revealed that he was invited by some politicians to a secret meeting abroad which he declined.

    ”The very people who wanted me to compromise are those who are accusing me. Those who wanted me to travel abroad to hold a secret meeting with and them and I said no.

    ”I said why do you want to go abroad and discuss the affairs of an electoral process outside Nigeria? Why do you want me to enter aeroplane and go to where? If you want to have a meeting with me come to my office.

    Read Also: Igini: Why parties lack internal democracy

    ”Since i have been in this state, anybody who says he has given me pure water(sachet water) let him or her come forward and say so. All those who contested the elections whether in PDP or APC or any party I don’t know them other than their lists of the names.

    ”As I speak to you, I don’t have their contacts, even those who won. If I see them on the way, I won’t recognise them”, Igini said.

    The Akwa Ibom REC said some politicians in the state have refused to come to terms with the fact that the old tradition of writing fictitious results are over, adding that since 1999 no genuine elections have been conducted in the state until the last one under his watch.

    ”In Akwa Ibom, apart from 1999 they have not been delivering ballot papers results sheets  to polling units. They have been writing results in Akwa Ibom state. There were no genuine elections in the state and I said there has to be a paradigm shift to the side of the will of the people”, he said.

    Spokesperson APC campaigns in Akwa Ibom, Mr. Eseme Eyiboh who reacted to the allegations, challenged Igini to mention names of his accusers who tried to compromise him as well as the country he was invited to for a secret meeting.

    ”The principle of law is very clear that whoever alleges should prove. If he has made such an allegation, then he has to prove just like the APC has made allegations against him.

    ”APC has substantially proven that how can a political party become your image manager. Look at the Vanguard newspaper of 28 January, page 39. Chieftains of the PDP paid for an advertorial threatening the INEC chairman not to redeploy Igini. Are they his employers?

    ”We have also told you that he(Igini) had a meeting with civil society forum which he told them clearly and it’s on record that under his watch APC can’t go anywhere in Akwa Ibom”, he said.

  • Int’l Observers to Buhari: assent to amended Electoral Act

    An International Election Observer group, Pan African Women (PAN) projects that monitored the General elections in Nigeria has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the amended electoral Act.

    Ms Mphoentle Keitseng, the Publicity Secretary of PAN project 2019 who monitored Governorship and House of Assembly elections in Akwa Ibom made the appeal during an interactive session with newsmen in Uyo on Wednesday.

    According to her, the electoral bill will help to facilitate and regulate a proper conduct of subsequent elections in the country.

    She noted with dismay that the just concluded governorship and house of assembly elections were marred with irregularities such as vote buying, ballot box snatching, intimidation, thuggery and disruption of voting process.

    Keitseng harped on the need to review the electoral act in order to help strengthen the electoral process.

    She called on federal government to create election tribunal in order to prosecute offenders of the electoral processes.

    Keitseng decried heavy presence of military personnel in polling units which she observed was scaring voters.

    She advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to improve on arrival of materials and election kick off at the gubernatorial and state of assembly elections.

    “We commend the transparent and credibility exhibited by INEC in Akwa Ibom in conducting free, fair Presidential/National Assembly and Gubernatorial/State House of Assembly elections,” said.

    Keitseng also advised INEC to recruit ad-hoc staff that were above 30 years of age for sensitive positions as polling officers because as many polling officials who were young lacked the maturity to take decisions on time, especially where violence erupted.

    NAN

  • Accept Emmanuel’s victory, CNP candidate tells fellow contestants

    The governorship candidate of Change Nigeria Party (CNP) in Akwa Ibom,  Dr. Engr. Anietie Ukpong, has urged fellow contestants to accept Governor Udom Emmanuel’s victory in last Saturday’s governorship election.

    Ukpong, who felicitated with Emmanuel over his reelection, urged candidates of other parties to also congratulate the governor over his well- deserved victory at the polls.

    Speaking with journalists in Uyo on Wednesday, the CNP candidate said he knew the governor would be re-elected because his campaign was anchored on the #onlyGod mantra.

    He said Akwa Ibom people and other residents, who filed behind the governor, contributed to his victory.

    Ukpong appealed to his fellow contestants to team up with Governor Emmanuel to contribute to the development of  the state.

    According to him, such cooperation will ultimately bring solutions to the chronic lack of economic opportunities, chronic darkness, overcrowded street hawking, decrepit infrastructure, lack of electricity, and lack of state wide health insurance.

    ”I challenge the governor to be very aggressive in the development of Akwa Ibom State especially the heavily marginalized communities of Ini, Itu, Oron, and Eket Local Government areas.

    ”I wish that the re-elected governor pushes for a legacy industrialisation effort through the construction of a behemoth industry, a petrochemical/refinery industry in Akwa Ibom State.

    ”With these in place, I believe it will cement the legacy of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and also Governor Udom Emmanuel’s Legacy in Akwa Ibom state,” he said.

    Ukpong also appealed to the Governor to task those in the Diaspora to contribute their vast experiences and expertise to the development of the state.

    ”The governor needs to engage and use his experiences gathered from his travels to western and Eastern countries such as the United States of America and China, to effect a transformational development of Akwa Ibom State,” he said.