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Tag: Akwa Ibom

  • APC: Govt in waiting in Akwa Ibom?

    APC: Govt in waiting in Akwa Ibom?

    Since the creation of the defunct East Central State which comprised the present states in South-South and Southeast geo-political zones by the then Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd) on Saturday, May 27, 1967, it had never been in opposition in Nigeria’s political landscape. Its disposition to stay in the mainstream politics had remained intact, total and unquestionable.

    The status quo continued uninterrupted with the creation of Akwa-Ibom State, which is one of the states in the South-South zone.

    The state had produced major political gladiators, among who is Chief Victor Attah; one-time governor of the state. Majority of these political gladiators had identified with the ruling political party both at the federal and state levels.

    Emmanuel
    Emmanuel

    For instance, since the return of democracy in 1999, the state has been governed by people who are major players in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) even up to the incumbent governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, who took over the mantle of leadership of the state from Chief Attah.

    However, after 16 solid years of the PDP leadership in the state and federal levels, the governed appeared to be disenchanted with the leadership style of the PDP, a situation that warranted a deafening clamour for change. The clamour for change by the people played out at the just-concluded presidential and National Assembly elections in which the ruling party was defeated by the opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    As if to avoid being left behind by this moving train of change, on Saturday, March 21, this year, Akwa-Ibom State witnessed what political analysts described as the “great declaration” of the century. On that day, Chief Attah, a personality of great repute, a pioneer and former Governor of Akwa-Ibom State from 1999 to 2007 dumped the PDP and declared his membership for the APC before a rally of  massive crowd. Recall that he has great followers who equally defected to the party of change.

    With the paradigm shift in Akwa Ibom State politics in particular and the country in general, there is the tendency that the membership or rather the population of those who make up the PDP would have depleted.

    Can Akwa Ibom State stay in the mainstream politics of the country again? Can Akwa Ibom State risk being in the opposition?

    Akwa-Ibom State is the home of those who love quality, decency and honesty. Can Akwa-Ibom State compromise her cherished tradition and subject it to the ignoble ease?

    If the current trend remains, Akwa Ibom State may have joined the league of states that have left the mainstream politics to become an opposition to the party of change, the APC.

    What was Chief Victor Attah having in his mind when he took this step? Was he taking a risk or was he conscious he could turn the state to be in the mainstream?

    If Akwa Ibom State remains loyal to the ruling party and incumbent government then it has become first-time opposition state since its creation.

    The action by Chief Attah could be risky sort of, but going by the current trend where noisy call for change holds sway, then the current ruling party has no option than to become an opposition party. The people will decide Akwa Ibom State’s fate tomorrow when they throng to the polling booths to either save the PDP or herald the party of change, the APC.

    If APC captures Akwa Ibom State, the joy of remaining in the mainstream is established, and if to the contrary victory falls on PDP, then Akwa Ibom State shall go into the first time ever opposition state record. But, as things are currently, the APC may have endeared itself to the people and may carry the day.

    • Sunday Ekong is former Travel Manager of the Daily Times.
  • Guber polls: NYSC members flee Akwa Ibom

    Guber polls: NYSC members flee Akwa Ibom

    Some members of the National Youth Service Corps who are ad hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Akwa Ibom State have fled the state ahead of April 11 governorship and state house of assembly elections.

    Some of the corps members spoke with newsmen in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state capital Thursday.

    The corps members said they sent ‘Save Our Soul’ letter to the Director General of the NYSC through the State Coordinator, Lady Ngozi Chukwuka.

    The leader of the group, who only identified himself as Asuquo, said many of them became objects of attack following unavailability of sensitive materials in their polling units during the March 28 Presidential and National Assembly elections.

    He added that many of the corps members who had been trained by INEC and used in the presidential and national assembly elections and who are not from Akwa Ibom, had fled the state.

    He said: “During the Presidential and National Assembly elections, for instance Ward 11, Unit 2, Nkemba, Uyo, we were sent there but we were not given sensitive materials. Because of threats to lives of many of our members following the irregularities that took place during the presidential and national assembly elections, many corps members who are not from Akwa Ibom, have left the state for where they come from.”

    He stated that the voters did not believe that INEC did not supply them with sensitive materials as they had believed that they (the INEC ad hoc staff) were hoarding the materials for politicians that would pay them handsomely.

    He appealed to the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Austin Okojie to ensure the availability of materials at the polling units before they are sent out to the field to conduct the governorship and state house of assembly elections.

    The letter by the corps members read: “We the undersigned youth corps members who are doing our national service in Akwa Ibom State and who have been recruited as ad hoc staff by the Independent National Electoral Commission have decided to send this ‘Save our Soul’ appeal to you to come to our aid.

    “Sir, we are constraint to write to you with respect to the forthcoming governorship and house of assembly election coming up on April 11.

    “Our experience during the last presidential election, where we were sent to the field without result sheets and other sensitive materials, exposed us to extreme danger, and this calls for sober reflection.

    “We only have God to thank that we lost only one female member in Abak and we do not want a repeat of it.

    “To this end, sir, we are appealing to you to use your good offices to direct the REC to ensure that no youth corps member should be sent out for electoral duties without giving him/her all the materials needed for the elections.

    “Equally important, sir, is the issue of security which must be put in place to ensure the safety of every youth corps member employed on electoral duties.”

  • ‘Votes must count in Akwa Ibom’

    ‘Votes must count in Akwa Ibom’

    Uwem Ankak reflects on the malpractices that married the recent presidential and National Assembly elections in Akwa Ibom State and warns about the danger of rigging in the next Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly elections.

    For almost eight years, the people of Akwa Ibom have been under the suffocating influence of Governor Gods’will Akpabio, who, in active connivance of the federal might, had subjugated the people to a dizzying  and unbearable level of mental and emotional torture, self doubt and humiliation in the name of governance. They persevered, prayed and hoped that someday and somehow, and by some touch of providence, they will have a Daniel come to judgement and free them from the internal slavery which they are subjected.

    The few daring ones who attempted to voice their concerns and raised a voice in protest are either in a permanent silent mode or have traumatic tales to tell. Make no mistake, Akpabio and his goons are no respecter of persons or institutions. Ask Obong Victor Attah, the ex governor, whose regime gave Mr Akpabio the leeway to state and national limelight, and you would be regaled of what he went through in a state he can, at best, be referred to as one of the founding fathers. Chief Don Etiebet, undoubtedly, a veritable face of the Akwa Ibom people, whose company offered Mr Akpabio a job and was one of the referees for his march to governance as a state commissioner, has unpleasant tales to tell. For Obong Attah, I am sure he won’t forget in a hurry the humiliating experience he got while going to attend the burial ceremony of Chief Tony Emenyi, the pioneer State Chairman of the Peoples democratic party. The ex-governor advance party was waylaid and barricaded on his way to Oron and was forced to turn back. The man had to beat a hasty retreat and went home. Talk of the Machiavellian principle of having to eliminate and decimate your godfathers to have a safe rule.

    But, this duo and a couple of others like Wing Commander Sam Ewang, a former military Administrator of Ogun State; Chief Ime Sampson Umanah, a well-known businessman and philanthropist, and a former deputy governorship candidate; General Edet Akpan, a former Director General of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), were lucky to be alive to narrate their tales of woes. Others, like Chief Paul Inyang, a PDP chieftain in the state; Chief Robert Obot, the Okuibom and head of the Ibibio traditional and chieftaincy institution; and more than 180 were not that lucky. They are cold, six feet beneath, in the grave! These are incidences that Akwa Ibom people would not forget in a hurry. No arrest, prosecution or even a reprimand have been recorded. The perpetrators have tacit support of the state as demonstrated by the lopsidedness in the way those cases were handled. And this is about deaths, attempted deaths, kidnapping ( a strange phenomenon our people never knew, even at the height of militancy in the Niger Delta), cultism, rape, child theft, etc.

    If the people were frightened of untimely deaths, they were overwhelmed by the quantum of financial recklessness in the state. Apart from the published accruals to the state from the federal account, the income from internally generate revenues has always been, in the almost eight years of Mr Akpabio’s reign, in the realm of speculation and gossip by the citizens of the state. An insight into the way the administration spends the state funds could be gauged by the comment of the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who, in a convocation speech at Babcock university, Ogun state, told an astonished audience that Akwa Ibom State had not spent up to 10 percent of its revenue from the Federation in the development of the state. Every Akwa Ibom person knows this truth to be absolute. For those who follow the uncommon transformation series on television across Nigeria, and who may have been hoodwinked by the aesthetics and colouring of that programme, you would have noticed that since 2009, you have been watching the same pictures with different narratives and from different angles.

    You probably must have seen the concentric flyover, few kilometres of roads, e-library, underground water drainage (…IBB road, Uyo and other places were flooded during the rain last week), Ibom Tropicana, completion of airport (started by the Attah administration), Ibom power plant which the previous administration had commissioned a section, etc. These were projects you were seeing in the uncommon Transformation series since 2009. After that, the major project you will see would be the football stadium in Uyo, the one aptly tagged ‘ The nest of champions (really?) The ongoing project, I will like to add charitably, are the specialist hospital, which contractors have moved out of site for non payment, the Uyo – Ikot Ekpene highway, a less than 22 kilometre stretch. Decorations, roundabouts dots a few places. But, the most debilitating is the debt profile of the state, put conservatively at about N600b. Adams Oshiomhole, Edo state governor gave an insight some weeks ago on the state of debt and a state which is moving steadily to a debt slavery.

    In all these, the Akwa Ibom people have not seen any industry, even at cottage level, which the administration has built. The few ones which the late Dr Clement Isong, former governor of old Cross River State sited in now Akwa Ibom State such the Battery, Biscuit, Ceramic, Qua Steel mill, Paint Industry are moribund and we are told, have been sold out to the brothers and cronies of the state governor. It is on record that, in the eight years of the Akpabio Administration, no economic enhancing projects have been initiated in the state to help the teeming population of university graduates who daily pound the streets of Uyo, with forlorn faces without any hope or access to social safety nets.

    Rather, what we see are white elephant and entertainment spots like the Tropicana (a cinema house), an e-library which are not even equipped for the benefit of even those who need it. But, this is a state who earned over five trillion naira from the federation account in the last eight years! This sum is almost equivalent to the revenue that accrues to all the five eastern states of Nigeria! In Anambra state alone, we have seen a state that not only established Orient Petroleum, but made the environment very conducive for one of the biggest brewing companies in the world to establish a plant! In the neighbouring Cross River State, big businesses are pouring in also, and thanks to the former governor Donald Duke (another president Nigerians desire), the world biggest electric company is building a plant there. There are farm settlement and international processing plants everywhere. It is today the hub of fruit juice business in Nigeria today.

    In Akwa Ibom State under  this present regime, we have seen a state that drove away a refinery project, Amankpe Refinery. This a project that some well-meaning indigenes of the state put together in far-away United states of America and was frustrated from take off. This company should have delivered more than 5,000 direct jobs and thousands of indirect jobs. The full story of the botched Amankpe refinery would be told to the world sooner than later. Nigerians would be shocked to know how pettiness, selfishness in government drove away a multi billion dollar project and denied its citizens the opportunity to earn a living, and ultimately benefit from the value-chain the business would have provided.

  • Jega’s silence on Akwa Ibom State is killing

    My first physical encounter with the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega was on Saturday December 6, 2013 at Ugbegun in Esan Central Local Government Area of Edo State during the burial of former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Festus Iyayi, who was murdered by the reckless convoy of the Governor of Kogi State, Idris Wada.

    I had relocated to Edo State for about a week to join other activists, comrades and public-spirited compatriots from within and outside the country to give our slain brother in the struggle “a befitting burial”.

    Throughout his stay during the interment, Prof. Jega neither uttered a word nor exuded emotions except the occasions he exchanged pleasantries with other sympathisers who came to greet him. As I observed Mr. Jega closely, I could see a well cultured, quiet and decorous personage that does not easily give in to the vicissitudes of life. My admiration for him soared afterwards.

    It was therefore not eccentric to me when he exuded equanimity on Tuesday, 31st March, 2015 when Mr. Godson Orubebe sought to undermine his hard earned reputation with his thoughtless, shameful and baseless allegations of bias and compromise during the collation of the presidential election results at the International Conference Center, Abuja.

    With the successful conduct of the presidential election on 28 March, 2015 which has been applauded by Nigerians and the international community, the reputation of Prof. Jega has further improved. However, I’m very worried that the respect presently being accorded the INEC Chairman may be short-lived owing to his worrisome disposition towards the evident, widely reported and verifiable compromise of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Akwa Ibom State led by the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Austin Okojie.

    It is sickening that despite the public outrage that has continued to trail the fraudulent conduct of the presidential and National Assembly elections in Akwa Ibom State, the INEC Chairman has not deem it pertinent to respond, even laconically, to the concerns and grievances expressed by residents of the State, political parties, the media, election observers and other Nigerians. One is tempted to ask whether the INEC Chairman has a special interest in Akwa Ibom State?

    It is on record that petitions has been sent to the INEC Chairman by interested persons, particularly by one of the leading political parties in the State, the All Progressives Congress (APC), in respect of the March 28 elections in Akwa Ibom State. Yet, there is no indication at the moment that the leadership of INEC has given a fair hearing to the petitioners.

    While it is true that politicians do make baseless allegations against the staffs of the Commission for political gains, it is not true that there are no bad eggs in the Commission. According to the results of the presidential election in the State as presented during the declaration of results by the State Collation Officer, Prof. James Ekpoke, Akwa Ibom State has 1, 644, 481 registered voters. Of this number, 1, 074, 070 voters were said to had been accredited while 1, 017, 064 reportedly voted. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was said to have scored 953, 304 votes while the All Progressives Congress (APC) allegedly scored 58, 411 votes.

    For God sake, where on planet earth did INEC get such alarming figures? Certainly not from the same Akwa Ibom State that no elections properly so-called took place. It is note worthy that the results of the March 28 elections were not announced at the State level until about 10 am of Tuesday, 31st March, 2015. Also, Prof. Jega had to stand down the announcement of the results by the State Collation Officer owing to discrepancy in the summation of the results until the figures were reconciled.

    During the March 28 elections, eligible voters were denied their franchise due to the willful and premeditated refusal by the INEC to release sensitive election materials, especially result sheets, to its ad hoc staffs. In most polling units, voters waited endlessly for the arrival of ballot papers and result sheets to no avail. In some places, elections actually took place but there were no result sheets to record same. In other places, known appointees of the State government went about with police and military escorts harassing voters and hijacking materials with reckless abandon.

    The rigging was so badly and carelessly done that result sheets were not even supplied at the polling unit of the APC gubernatorial candidate in the State, Mr. Umana Okon Umana in Nsit Ubium Local Government Area. It took protest by the candidate for the result sheets to be brought allegedly from the home of a former legislator from the area. The story was the same in most parts of the State.

    Surprisingly, the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission led by its Chairman, Prof. Jega has not deem it proper to react or investigate these documented, cogent and verifiable facts and evidence of massive fraud, rigging and subversion of the electoral process. At the moment, the State is literally in flames owing to the fear that the embattled State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Austin Okojie whose actions and inactions smacks of partisanship will still be the one to oversee the forthcoming gubernatorial and State House of Assembly elections in the State.

    Late in the night on Sunday 5th April, 2015 information went viral on social media that the gubernatorial candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel was having a meeting with INEC Returning Officers in the entire State. The nocturnal meeting was leaked by one of the Returning Officers (a lecturer) who attended the meeting. An Akwa Ibom State Correspondent of one of the national newspapers has confirmed to this writer that he drove passed the Babangida Avenue where the meeting allegedly took place and that he saw hundreds of vehicles and people at two places. These are serious allegations that shouldn’t be treated with kid gloves by the Chairman of INEC. The State Resident Electoral Commissioner cannot be trusted to conduct credible polls on April 11 in the State.

    This is the same REC that refused to accredit local journalists in the State claiming that they were working for the opposition. It took three days of vigil at the State INEC Headquarters by the insistent local journalists before the REC bowed to pressure and accredited them. So why is Prof. Jega still silent and unconcerned about the despicable, volatile and precarious situation in Akwa Ibom State? Is it that Akwa Ibom State is not significant to warrant a decisive action by the INEC Chairman?

    I humbly advice Prof. Jega to make sweeping changes in the commission before the April 11 gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly elections in the country. It is only right and expedient for the INEC Chairman to redeploy REC’S and other senior staffs of the commission from States that the March 28 polls were marred by irregularities and controversies. Anything short of this may spell doom for our nascent democracy and may greatly bastardize the reputation of the Commission.

    The media, human rights community, local and international observers should take note and follow closely the troubling situation in Akwa Ibom State. Prof. Jega should rise above any primordial consideration and defend the integrity of INEC and the electoral process in Akwa Ibom State.

    The time to act is now!

    • Inibehe Effiong is the Convener of the Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (COHRD).

     

     

     

     

  • Furore over Akwa Ibom Senate seat

    •Group seeks Ikot Ekpene poll’s cancellation

    The Re-claim Essien Udim Group has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel the National Assembly election into the Senate for Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District.

    The group described the election as a “sham and a cocktail of electoral irregularities”.

    According to the group, in a transparent democracy, both the process and procedure are as important as the final outcome.

    They said: “Regrettable, the elections into the Senate as well as the Presidential and House of Representatives elections in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial district was characterized by massive rigging of unimaginable proportion before, during and after the elections which ended up rendering the ballot process a barren exercise.

    “All this happened under the watchful eyes of officers and men of the police who accompanied the Commissioner. The impunity did not end there. INEC officials were not given the election result sheets. Rather they were ordered to the Commissioners House where fraudulent election results were written.”

    Also the group said in Abak Local Government Area , there was no election material for the polls, a deliberate conspiracy to disenfranchise the electorate and rig the polls.

    In Essien Udim LGA, the hometown of Governor Akpabio, the group said it was an open secret that the Governor had diverted election materials to his private residence where he had camped both electoral officers and NYSC ad hoc staffs.

    The stakeholders also said in Odoro Ikot clan, results were falsified.

    They alleged that results were also falsified in Obot Akara ,Ini, Ikono, Ikot Ekpene, Ika , Ukanafun , Oruk Anam Local Governments.

    The stakeholders thanked the APC teaming supporters across the senatorial district for maintaining the peace despite the action of the PDP and Governor Akpabio which was highly provocative.

  • ‘How election was manipulated in Akwa Ibom’

    ‘How election was manipulated in Akwa Ibom’

    The elections of March 28, when Nigerians voted to elect the nation’s new President and members of the National Assembly, are now part of Nigeria’s political history. But the implications of the deleterious actions taken by political actors on that day will live with us every moment of our life.

    I witnessed some of these actions while on election duty in Akwa Ibom State. Though I stayed on in Uyo, I was able to tap into a network of contacts comprising accredited journalists, election monitors and local politicians for information about the goings-on in the various local government areas.

    Electioneering in Akwa Ibom was at its most intense during the lead-up to polling. The voter turnout on election day was expectedly high, in fact very high. This was where the good news ended.

    From thence on things spiralled down the valley. In Akwa Ibom, INEC polling officials reported late at most of the polling units. But there was something even worse than their late arrivals. They, nearly all of them, reported for duty without result sheets with which to record votes as cast for the candidates. The result sheet is one of the sensitive materials that INEC cannot do without and which party agents must look out for at the polling units on Election Day. The absence of the result sheets stoked curiosity and provoked queries from among the voters and party agents.

    At his ward in Ndiya, Nsit Ubium local government area, for instance, Mr. Umana Okon Umana, APC governorship candidate for the state, demanded explanation on why the result sheets were not available at the polling unit. The polling officer said right away that the result sheets were taken away by the electoral officer for the area. Umana insisted that the result sheets must be produced as part of the materials needed for the elections. He called the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Austin Okogie to lay a complaint about the missing result sheets. Okogie gave the assurance from his office in Uyo that he would look into and resolve the problem. Of course he never did. Now back to Ndiya. The electoral officer, seeing that Umana and his supporters, rearing to vote, would not budge without the result sheets, quickly produced some copies of what resembled the result sheets. But on closer examination it was not the result sheet issued by INEC. The result sheets produced by the electoral officer lacked the bar code or security feature that sets the genuine, INEC-issued result sheet apart.

    Further enquiries as to why the all-important result sheet was missing led to a mind-boggling revelation that the result sheets were removed and sold to the PDP which is bankrolled by the state government. The full story alleged that most copies of the result sheets were in the possession of the state government, which had set up situation rooms to fill them up with numbers of accredited voters relayed to the situation rooms by compromised INEC ad-hoc staff recruited from the NYSC. The concocted results were later passed on to INEC for collation and announcement, the story further alleged.

    Two days after the elections, Umana, the APC candidate, led a protest march from his party headquarters on Atiku Abubakar Avenue in Uyo and walked a distance of more than seven kilometres to the INEC office on Udo Udoma Avenue to address the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Austin Okogie, over the widespread irregularities that marked the elections. Mr. Okogie, who did not deny offering to address the issue of missing result sheets as complained of by Umana (which of course he failed to do), however said materials were deployed to the local council areas in the state from the INEC head office in Uyo with all the sensitive components intact.

    His comment was drowned in a din of boos by the crowd around him, which distinctly shouted an allegation that the REC had been compromised to do the bidding of the state governor in the elections.

    Another point of interest to react to is the role of the police in the elections. I witnessed and learned of actions that are inconsistent with the constitutional duty of the police in the country. I witnessed at a polling unit in a primary school in Ikot Arankere, Ukanafun local council area, where a well known PDP member arrived to cart away a ballot box, ably assisted by officers of the Nigeria Police.

    I would learn later that for most part of Ukanafun and Oruk Anam local council areas, the same PDP member, went around simply collecting ballot boxes from polling units, conspicuously assisted by the police.

    Reports from my field contacts in Ibesikpo Asutan show that the attacks on the integrity of the elections were even more brazen and lethal than what happened in Oruk Anam. I learnt that a commissioner in the state went around Ibesikpo Asutan with more than 50 policemen who were shooting and snatching ballot boxes. The police allegedly shot and killed two young men who tried to resist the snatching of the ballot boxes. Before the elections, Etuk had warned parents in the area to keep their children away from coming out to vote for opposition parties to avoid harm befalling them.

    A similar level of brigandage attended the polls in the five local council areas in the Oro nation; in Etinan, where the police, allegedly following orders from a functionary of the state government, shot and wounded three supporters of the APC for resisting the snatching of boxes in the area. Reports from Ikot Ekpene, Abak, Eket, Ikot Abasi, Nsit Ubium, Attai, Itu, Ikono, etc, painted similar pictures.

    At the end of the day, PDP declared total victory in the NASS and Presidential elections in the state. But APC, has protested that there were no elections and petitioned the election umpire, the Independent National Electoral  Commission to annul the polls. The party has also demanded the reassignment of the current Resident Electoral Commissioner and the Police Commissioner in the state for their roles in the election fiasco.

    APC has complained that in the presidential contest it had to face the combined onslaught of the PDP, INEC and Akwa Ibom State Command of the Nigeria Police. It said the two institutions of state, namely, the Nigeria Police and INEC were taken over by the state government and used to deliver the elections to the PDP contrary to the wishes of the people.

    They party has consequently called for the redeployment of the heads of the Police and INEC in the state. It argued that their continued stay in their positions would undermine the integrity of the governorship and state house of assembly polls on April 11.

     

  • Akwa Ibom to privatise power plant

    Akwa Ibom to privatise power plant

    Akwa Ibom state government has said that it is disposed towards privatising the Ibom Power Plant in Ikot Abasi council area of the state, Senior Special Adviser on Investment and Industrialization, Chief Senas Ukpana has said.

    Ukpana who disclosed this during a media parley with members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists in Uyo recently said that the arrangement was consistent with modern investment practices.

    “Government policy is to privatise such investments and this is in line with global practice and in reality with modern times. It has been proven that it is difficult for government to do such business.” Ukpana, who is also the chairman of the State Investment Corporation explained.

    He said that insinuations by some members of the opposition that the state government was trying to mortgage the future of youths in the state by selling the power plant is being promoted by those who lost out in the last PDP primaries.

    He also disclosed that a private investor has proposed to establish another power plant at Ikot Abasi due to the availability of gas supply from the Uquo Gas plant in Esit Eket local council of the area.

    On fears expressed by some people from the Oron area of the state over plans by the state government to relocate the proposed sea port planned for Ibaka in Mbo local council to Esit Eket, the Special Adviser explained that such decisions were technical and would be taken by experts handling the project.

    It would be recalled that Senator Ita Enang had in a local radio programme recently urged the state government to reconsider any move aimed at selling the state owned independent power plant for the interest of the future of the state.

    Enang had said that feelers that the Governor Godswill Akpabio led administration want to sell the power plant have received a negative response from stakeholders in the state.

     The Senate committee chairman on Business and Rules was of the opinion that selling the plant would not only jeopardise efforts at ensuring 24 hour electricity coverage for the people of the state but could deny future generations of the state a valuable asset.

     He however said that other less viable investments made by the state government should be sold if there is any need for extra fund for the running of government.

  • Electoral farce in Rivers and Akwa Ibom

    Electoral farce in Rivers and Akwa Ibom

    •In both states, the PDP did not do service to democracy and commonsense

    Can it be said that free, fair, transparent and credible elections held in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states last Saturday? It is regrettable that this question cannot be answered in the affirmative. In Rivers State, for instance, the exercise was characterised by widespread violence as well as intimidation and arrest of scores of top politicians, mainly of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC). Scores of APC members were killed in various parts of the state by rampaging gun men. It has been alleged that armed militias operating freely and with impunity were responsible for these acts of barbarity. At least 100 members of the party were arrested and prevented from participating in the election across the state. Surely, this is not an atmosphere in which acceptable elections could be said to have taken place.

    Rivers State had been a theatre of violence ever before last Saturday’s election. In virtually all cases, the APC had been the target. For instance, the party’s secretariat was bombed in three local government areas (LGAs) of the state. A delegation of the party’s members travelling from Okrika, the home town of the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, to attend the APC presidential campaign in Port Harcourt was shot at and scores wounded. And in the same Okrika, unknown gun men opened fire on the crowd of APC supporters who had gathered to attend the governorship campaign of the party’s candidate, Mr Dakuku Peterside. A few days before the March 28 polls, Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s convoy was shot at, with the police absurdly blaming the incident on the governor’s security aides.

    In all of these cases, there was no arrest of even a single perpetrator of the acts of violence. This laxity on the part of the security agencies no doubt encouraged the level of violence witnessed during last Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections. Indeed, given the clear indication that Rivers State would be a likely flashpoint of tension and violence during the election, why weren’t the security agents better prepared to combat hoodlums and ensure that an atmosphere for peaceful elections was created? What was the purpose of the massive deployment of security personnel for the election purportedly to check violence and maintain peace and order? Can it not be credibly inferred that the security agencies actually provided the opportunity for the gangsters to operate with impunity in Rivers State?

    Even more seriously, the election in Rivers State was clearly not conducted in accordance with the electoral law and is thus devoid of both legality and legitimacy. For one, vital electoral materials, including result sheets, were reportedly distributed from the personal residences of top Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders, including the party’s governorship candidate, Chief NyesomWike as well as Tele Ikuru, the deputy governor of the state who recently defected to the PDP. Furthermore, in many areas, opposition party agents were driven away from the polling centres and thus could not observe the process and protect their party’s interest. Other illegal acts included distribution of over 40,000 incident forms at Oyigbo Local Government Area by a PDP chieftain, sudden change of trained ad hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and their replacement with untrained ones, as well as the open parading of Permanent Voters Cards in their possession by some top leaders of the PDP.

    Perhaps the most dramatic incident of the election in Rivers State was Governor Amaechi’s refusal to vote. His reason was the refusal of the electoral officials to produce result sheets and their inability to offer any plausible reason for this inexplicable situation. Indeed, the non-availability of result sheets at the polling units as required by law was reportedly a common feature across Rivers State. Ordinarily, all voting materials must be present at the polling unit and shown to the electorate to guarantee the transparency of the process. The result sheet is very vital to the electoral process. It is the document on which the results of the voting are recorded and signed by the various party agents. If the result sheets are not available at the polling unit, then arbitrary figures contrary to the outcome of the actual will of the electorate can be filled in by unscrupulous electoral officials in collusion with desperate politicians.

    It is most unfortunate that the impunity witnessed in Rivers State before and during this election, has taken place with attention of the whole world focussed on Nigeria. The perpetrators of these acts have done grave harm to the image of the country. The scale of electoral impunity in Rivers State in particular but also in Akwa Ibom State was vividly captured by one of the electoral observers, Ibrahim Zikrullah of the Transitional Monitoring Group (TMG). In his words, “I think the election was generally fair. Of course, we have Rivers State, where the election did not meet minimal standards of any recognised election. The state security took over the role of INEC. They were beating up people, smashing ballots and falsifying results”.

    And on the election in Akwa Ibom State, he said “In Akwa Ibom State, observers were chased away. Two of our observers were arrested. They were released late at night. Even when they could not find anything criminal about them, and they were identified by INEC, the police insisted that they should pay bribes … And people were chased away. Party agents were chased from the polling units and at the end of the day, results were declared in some poling units”.

    There is no doubt that the credibility of the polls in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states has been incurably tainted. We urge Professor Attahiru Jega, the INEC chairman who has proven to be a man of integrity to see that the charade paraded as elections in these states and any other one where such occurrences are reported are thoroughly investigated and urgent remedial measures taken to protect electoral justice and integrity. It is important to do this before the governorship and state houses of assembly elections in two weeks’ time.

  • APC supporters protest in Akwa Ibom

    Supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State yesterday shut down Uyo, the state capital,  protesting what they called widespread irregularities in Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections.

    The protest was led by APC Governorship candidate, Umana Okon Umana, and other chieftains.

    Youths across the three senatorial districts and market women also joined the protest.

    The peaceful protest  began at the party’s headquarters on IBB Way, and marched through major roads, down to the state headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at Udo Udoma Avenue.

    The protesters were received by the administrative secretary of the commission where they insisted that the Resident Electoral Commission (REC), Austin Okojie, should address them.

    Umana, who spoke on behalf of the protesters, said the elections were marred by violence and that there were no results sheets in all the polling units.

    According to Umana, collation of results which could have been done at the ward levels and local government areas were all done in the houses of some serving commissioners, senators and minister.

    He said: “From all over Akwa Ibom State, people could not find the result sheets. At the end of Sunday, we compiled reports from our situation room and we found out that the situation was not different anywhere.

    “We took a position to write to INEC Chairman to inform him about the situation. Outside that, even when voting was taking place in a few areas, for example in Ibiono, Ibesikpo, Nsit Atai, Etinan, serving commissioners led thugs to polling units to snatch ballot boxes and killed some of our members.

    Umana, who called for fresh elections, said: “The people of Akwa Ibom state feel that their rights have been trampled upon, they have been oppressed in a manner that has never happened before. They are crying out to God that those who have participated in this conspiracy are putting up a course on their head. Whatever money they have collected it will never be well with them.

    “We have not had elections in Akwa Ibom State. We are law abiding. We have done the right thing. We wrote to the chairman of INEC stating our facts that we couldn’t have had elections in Akwa Ibom because we had no result sheets. No voting took place in Akwa Ibom and I know results must have been recorded by now and over 100 per cent given to PDP.

  • Presidential polls: PDP wins in Akwa Ibom

    Presidential polls: PDP wins in Akwa Ibom

    .APC rejects final result
    The final results of last Saturday’s presidential polls in Akwa Ibom State have been officially declared.

    The Returning Officer, Professor Ekpoke announced the final results about 2.30 pm Monday in the INEC Conference center in Uyo, the State capital.

    The returning officer gave the total number of registered voters in the state as 1,644,481 while the number accredited by INEC to vote in the elections stood 1,074,070.

    Parties and their scores as announced by the Returning Officer were: AA – 1,600, AD – 443, ACPN- 474, ADC- 608, APA- 384, APC- 58,411, CPP- 412, HDP- 194, KOWA- 160, NCP- 381, PDP- 953,304, PDM-327, UDP- 224 and UPP-144.

    The returning officer put the total number of valid votes cast in the polls at 1,027,064, total rejected votes at 11,487 while total votes cast stood at 1,028,551.

    The APC representative at the result announcement, Mr. Ekong Ebienang refused to sign the final result sheet.

    He said his Party refused to sign because the result was found to be fundamentally flawed right from the fields.

    He added that APC will take official position regarding the election and the result as announced.

    However, the State PDP Chairman, Obong Paul Ekpo who spoke at the end of the announcement thanked the Akwa Ibom people and indeed Nigerians for ensuring that the election was conducted in a peaceful atmosphere.

    He declared that the Presidential election was free and fair and the result as announced, a true reflection of the wishes of the people.

    On APC‘s allegation that the election was fundamentally flawed from the fields, Obong Paul Ekpo countered. He said:” I wonder why APC is making noise, the Party is non- existence in Akwa Ibom, they should rejoice that they had up to 50,000 votes.”

    Obong Ekpo further added that PDP in the State will investigate the results credited to APC because they are not suppose to have that much as the Party is not visible in Akwa Ibom.

    Also speaking, another PDP Chieftain and State Commissioner for Special Duties, Barr. Emmanuel Enoidem said the election went generally well though the Card Reader Machine brought in by INEC almost marred the process.

    He faulted INEC for bringing in the machine without adequate technological knowledge.

    Enoidem said he had challenges being accredited by the Card reader and this also affected a lot others.

    He cautioned INEC against using these faulty machines in the remaining elections so as not to cause serious problems for the people.