Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel has no plan to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC), leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and some opinion leaders in the state have said.
The runmour mill has been agog that the governor would follow his predecessor Senator Godswill Akpabio to the APC, causing disquiet in some quarters.
Many groups and individuals, including Ibom Patriots, former governorship aspirants and other leading political and opinion leaders have raised issues on the alleged defection pan.
The Ibom Patriots made up of leders like the immediate past Commissioner for Transport Godwin Ntukude, Chairman of Ibom Power Etido Inyang, Commissioner for the Environment Eniobong Essien, Special Adviser Bureau of Political and Legislative Affairs, Ekong Sampson, Usenebong Akpabio, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Prof Comfort Ekpo, former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice Ekpenyong Ntekim, Mr. Okon Emah, rose from a meeting in Uyo at the weekend where they dismissed the defection plot as “impracticable.”
The Chancellor of the group Obong Bassey Inuayen said: “We believe those peddling the rumours are hallucinating. He revealed that last week, stakeholders from Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District met with the governor and he told them he had no plan to defect to the APC.
“At the meeting, the governor said he would rather go home and rest, instead of defecting to the APC.
“As far as we know, Governor Emmanuel is not defecting to the APC. The day he is defecting, the Patriots will let you know.”
Commissioner for Information and Strategy Charles Udoh also at the weekend said stories trending on the social media that Emmanuel intended to defect to the APC were not true.
Udoh who was guest on a Planet 101.1FM Radio programme, said the governor was too principled to jump ship as many others, adding that the governor as a trust worthy and credible man cannot speak from both sides of his tongue.
Udoh said Emmanuel would not allow political maneuvers to taint his image which he spent years to build in the corporate world before his foray into public service.
“For a man who has worked to the position of a Chief Financial Officer in Zenith Bank, one of the high flying financial institutions in Nigeria, his integrity cannot be taken for granted.
“He is trusted with money and enormous capacity. And again, for Akwa Ibom State to be rated as the second best in Nigeria on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), then Investors must have trusted the integrity of the Governor before sinking huge foreign currency into their investments in the state.”
But despite the denials from the state government and other supporting groups and individuals, sources from both parties insist that the governor planned to defect before the plan crumbled.
Commissioner for Works Akparawa Ephraim Inyang- Eyen had then debunked the rumour saying “ Now, saying that Governor Emmanuel will defect to the APC in his second term, I think is a conjecture and let me sound it very clearly, the governor is a man of character and principles.
“He is not one of those politicians who would want to jump all over the place because of what they think they could get. The time to have done that could have been when the system was trying to hold him to ransom and not now that he has performed and Akwa Ibom people are happy. A political platform is just a platform, but the critical thing is the candidate. Udom won election beyond political platform and given his performance, platform for his second term will not be too relevant”.
Senator Anietie Okon also described the defection rumour as the handiwork of “those who have mis-stepped and overrated themselves. They are finding a way to dig back and be relevant.”