Senate Minority Leader and former Akwa State Governor Godswill Akpabio has fought many battles in his political career; he usually comes out almost unscathed. The move by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to prosecute him over allegations of misappropriating N108.1bn while serving as governor between 2007 and 2015 is the latest of such battles. Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI traces the series of battles of the former governor and the odds against him this time around.
This is not the best of times for former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who has fought many battles and triumphed in his political career. In 2007, for instance, he became the governorship flag bearer of the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, against the wishes of the then out-going Governor Victor Attah. Fifty-eight aspirants fought for the ticket, but, at the shadow poll, Akpabio emerged as the winner.
But, at the twilight of his eight-year tenure as governor, things began to fall apart within the PDP, as the party started losing its hitherto iron-grip on national politics. As the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Akpabio played a prominent role in the crisis that engulfed the party. Though the party performed woefully in the general elections that followed that crisis, Akpabio was compensated with the position of Minority Leader of the Senate for the role he played as one of the key allies of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Nevertheless, the former governor has not known peace since the preparations for the last general elections destabilised Akwa Ibom PDP. As the leader of the party in the state, Akpabio fought two major battles with party stakeholders in the twilight of his administration. One of such battles centred on his determination to install Governor Udom Emmanuel as his successor. This eventually led to mass defections from the ruling PDP in the state to the All Progressives Congress (APC); thus paving the way for the first keenly-contested governorship election there since the return to civil rule 16 years ago. As could be gleaned from last week’s tribunal judgment, which ordered a rerun in 18 out of the 31 local governments in the state, the dust is yet to settle on the matter.
The other battle that had been giving Akpabio sleepless nights is his controversial emergence as the senator representing Akwa Ibom Northwest Senatorial District. Akpabio’s emergence as the PDP flag bearer for the election was widely regarded as controversial because he hijacked the ticket, against the subsisting agreement that the next senator from the district should come from the Abak division, one of the two major components that make up the Akwa Ibom Northwest District, otherwise known as the Ikot Ekpene District. The APC had challenged his emergence on several grounds, one of which was that no election took place. But, the election petition tribunal has decided the matter in Akpabio’s favour.
The APC flag bearer in the contest, Chief Inibehe Okori, had challenged the March 28, 2015 election on four grounds: “That the first respondent was not qualified to contest the election on the ground that he was not nominated or sponsored by any political party; that the first respondent was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast at the election; that the election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices and / or non compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act; and that at the trial the petitioners shall rely on the senatorial district delineation map prepared under section 71 of the constitution by the second respondent.
In its judgment two weeks ago, the Akwa Ibom State National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, upheld the election of former governor, saying the petitioners failed to prove that Akpabio was not validly nominated by the PDP to contest the election. The tribunal headed by Goddy Anunihu declared that the election that produced Senator Akpabio was done in substantial compliance to the Electoral Act, 2010.
The judgment read in part: “There is abundant evidence that the electorate, including the petitioners, were not in any way deceived as to the senatorial district, (where) the 1st respondent was nominated to contest the election.
“There is also uncontroverted evidence that the first petitioner (Okori) bought the form of the third respondent (PDP) for the same Akwa Ibom Northwest Senatorial District before he lost the ticket and decamped to the APC.”
The former governor may have survived the threat against his senatorial election, but he is facing a fresh challenge from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The move by the EFCC to prosecute him has generated heated debates between the Presidency and the PDP. The opposition party has been hauling brickbats at the APC’s war against corruption, saying governors under its platform are being singled out for persecution.
Akpabio’s ordeal is coming on the heels of a petition dated June 22, 2015 and addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari and the EFCC. In the document, the petitioner, an Abuja-based legal practitioner, Mr. Leo Ekpenyong, alleged that the former governor misappropriated N108.1bn while serving as governor of Akwa Ibom State.
Beyond the verbal tirade between the Presidency and the PDP, Akpabio’s case has started generating more controversy. Ekpenyong has faulted the way and manner the anti-graft agency is handling the case of the governor of Akwa Ibom between 2007 and 2015. The legal practitioner is unhappy with the EFCC Chairman Ibrahim Lamorde’s handling of the interrogation of the former governor. In a fresh petition to President Buhari, he has accused Lamorde of mentoring Akpabio on how to write statements that would enable him escape culpability in the corruption case, and asked that he should hands off the matter until a new helmsman is appointed for the agency.
Ekpenyong said that given the evidence already in public domain, there was no need for EFCC to be shopping for evidence to prosecute the former governor and retrieve the state’s funds from him and his associates. He said: “Lamorde should resign because he is working in league with Akpabio to stall his prosecution. What he is doing now is mere window dressing in the media to give the impression that he is serious about trying the former governor. That is why I have sent a new petition to the Presidency to remove Lamorde from the case and appoint a man with integrity to handle the case.”
But, the issue remains whether the ebullient Akpabio is guilty as charged. After inviting Akpabio and grilling him for two days, over allegations of corruption during his eight-year tenure as governor, the anti-graft agency is still considering whether it has enough evidence to charge the former governor who is a prominent member of the PDP to court. He is being accused of misappropriating N108.1bn while serving as governor of Akwa Ibom State.
Indeed, given the commission’s not-too-impressive track record of hastily arresting and arraigning political office holders in court, without proper investigation and consequently no evidence to prosecute such cases, Akpabio’s case may be dead on arrival.
Akpabio’s supporters are already upset with the mere idea of interrogating the former governor on charges of corruption. They point to the pace of infrastructural and socio-economic development witnessed in the state during the Akpabio administration. Such loyalists say Akpabio’s ordeal is politically motivated and may not be unconnected with 2019 politics.
But, critics insist that the former governor has deceived many Akwa Ibomites with his ‘uncommon transformation’ mantra and that most of what people claim as his achievements are white-elephants projects and surface dressing. One of such critics, the Convener, Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (COHRD), Mr. Inibehe Effiong, believes the ongoing efforts of the President Buhari to rid the country of corruption will remain a mirage if people like Akpabio are still moving freely. He said until he is investigated, prosecuted and put behind bars, the war against corruption would remain a pipe dream.
He said despite the unprecedented allocations that accrued to the state from 2007 to 2015 that Akpabio left behind a worrisome debt running into several billions of naira. He added: “A recent publication by Diamond Bank Plc, one of banks that the Akpabio regime borrowed money from, shows that Akwa Ibom State owes the bank N5.8 billion. Several contractors, including Julius Berger Plc, which Akpabio used for his much-trumpeted infrastructural projects are being owed billions of naira. Civil servants, including lecturers of the state government owned university, are being owed salaries.”
Observers say there is a lot of hype about the number of flyovers in Uyo. But, as far as many Akwa Ibomites are concerned, there is no need for such flyovers at the moment. At a time workers were being salary arrears, Akpabio organized a profligate Christmas carol believed to have gulped over a N1 billion. Well known personalities, including Reverend Jesse Jackson, were brought from different parts of the globe to Uyo for the carol last December.
Yet, civil servants had not received their salaries since September at the time. Prior to the general elections, workers in the local governments had been on strike for about four months because of non-payment of salaries. Similarly, primary school teachers were also on indefinite strike at the time, over non-payment of salaries for four months.
In his petition to the President, Ekpenyong gave details of some of Akpabio’s alleged financial recklessness. He indicated that between January and December 2014, the ex-governor colluded with two of his top aides to steal a whopping N108.1 billion from the state’s treasury. Ekpenyong told the EFCC that the former Government House Permanent Secretary, Etekamba Umoren, and the former Accountant General of the state, Udo Isobara, colluded with Mr. Akpabio to steal the funds.
He stated in the petition: “Between January and December 2014, it is on record that the trio of Godswill Akpabio, Mr. Etekamba Umoren and Mr. Udo Isobara, made illegal but substantial withdrawals of cash from a designated state government-owned account with Zenith Bank with account number: 1010375881 amounting to N22.1 billion,” he stated in the petition.
“It is worthy of note that reasons for such ungodly cash withdrawals against financial regulations and due process laws range between sundry use and unjustifiable expenditures by Godswill Akpabio and his numerous surrogates and proxies. For example, a whopping N18 billion was withdrawn fraudulently from the state FAAC account with the United Bank for Africa in trenches of N10 million and above by Mr. Isobara in a surreptitious manner to conceal their dishonest intention.”
For assisting Akpabio retire billions of the stolen funds, Ekpenyong said Umoren was rewarded with an appointment as Government House chief of staff and now secretary to the state government under Udom Emmanuel’s administration. The legal practitioner went on to state that over N50 billion of Akwa Ibom funds were spent by the former governor during the last general elections.
During the period under review, he said Akpabio also withdrew a whopping N18 billion from the state coffers under the guise of special services, reception of very important guests and sundry items. “The cumulative aggregate of these monies stolen by Godswill Akpabio from the coffers of government as pocket money is the annual budget of some states in Nigeria put together,” the petition reads.
The EFCC is still investigating the matter. The outcome of the investigation would determine who will have the last laugh. Meanwhile, the PDP maintains that the investigation is aimed at weakening the PDP ahead of 2019 elections.
