The press statement on the above subject signed by the State Chairman of the APC acting as the Publicity Secretary, contains obvious falsehood, incoherent logic and has a thread of deep-seated hatred and vengeance running through it.

In reaction, may we respectfully state that Udom Emmanuel is not the first Governor in Nigeria to be indicted, some have even been charged. These facts are available at the most basic level of research, but because those in that political coven, seem to have sent their thinking faculty on vacation, we will take out time to outline few of those facts in detail.

Before I offer such free research and legal service, I however concede that the author of that hackneyed article is not learned and it would have been most unfair of me to expect anything "legally reasonable" from him. One would have however thought that he should at least have a basic understanding of the English language, which is the language of the court in Nigeria and with which the Supreme Court weaved her judgement in FRN v Joshua Dariye. The court in that case held inter alia, upholding the pronouncement of the Court of Appeal, that Learned Counsel to the state” ought to have seen the impracticability, futility and absurdity of instituting criminal proceedings against Chief Joshua Chibi Dariye either as Governor of plateau state or in his name since he is not a nominal party under section 308(2) of the constitution...”. Plenty Governors have been indicted by various agencies with prosecutorial vires.

Maybe the chairman/ acting publicity misconstrues indictment to mean conviction. Again, for his benefit and that of his co-travellers, the synonyms for indictment include accusation, allegation, summons etc. So with this can the APC say that Governor Udom Emmanuel is the first Governor to be accused by the EFCC? But come to think of it, our Governor is being accused by the EFCC on flimsy and baseless grounds, whereas the same EFCC is yet to utter a word on Babachir Lawal on the grass cutting saga or the Governor of Kano state who was caught on camera receiving dollars. We know that the discretion to prosecute lies absolutely with the state and we do not contend with that at all. The question is why resort to media trial?

Akwa Ibom people should know that the charge which has been circulating in the media has not yet been served on the accused persons. Isn’t that laughable? Beyond the amusement, such is a shouting evidence of the baselessness of the accusations as one cannot put a charge on nothing and expect same to stand. Until and when the cooked charge arrives, we are certain that those accused are able and ready to defend themselves.

We are well aware that this indictment, like others that are trailing is a ploy to keep some critical members of the ruling PDP distracted from the business of electioneering. We have it on good authority that many commissioners, the Speaker, party chairman and other influential members of our party will be served invitations to various security and anti-graft agencies in January 2019 and charged in February, in the ‘Adeleke’ style. This is in addition to the special squad of a security agency that had arrived Akwa Ibom last week and will stay till year end, undertaking a mapping of the homes of influential PDP members who have been marked for a lock down on Election Day. We know all of these schemes and have adequately prepared for them. We can assure that these plans will fail and their architects disgraced.

On the issue of the Governor building a house in his village, every reasonable Akwa Ibom person knows that Udom Emmanuel, unlike their tin-god was a man of means before arriving the political stage of our state. We will rather refer him to the residence of his party members, like Obong Umana Umana(bound by four streets), Obong Nsima Ekere and Senator Godswill Akpabio, all built during their service in public office. Some of these people had no house of their own, even in their villages before ascending the political throne. To the glory of God, there stands in Awa, a two-storey building, with a pent house(aged two decades plus), where even Senator Akpabio was received in 2013, when he attended the reception in honour of the then SSG. Even the accusers know that poverty had been excommunicated from the Emmanuel’s family(nuclear and extended),long before his foray into politics.

The accusation of becoming a major stakeholder of Zenith Bank by buying shares through the stock exchange shows the lack of common sense on the workings of the stock exchange and the effect of the absence of a second address by leaders of the APC. We challenge them to produce evidence to substantiate this inane claim.

Finally, the State Chairman of our party, the People’s Democratic Party, Obong Paul Ekpo has asked that I intimate you that he will be unavailable to reply to your statements, as he is busy campaigning and preparing our party for elections and that he is not surprised at the penchant of your party to pull down Akwa Ibom people who have attained great heights in life, but do not agree to partake in the execution of your party’s devilish schemes. Akwa Ibom state has not yet forgotten the witch-haunt against Hon. Justice Inyang Okoro and are therefore not perturbed by the latest agenda against Paul Usoro, SAN. Like the first failed, all other plots will.

Let it be known to you and all your cohorts, that throughout this period, our Governor, HE Udom Emmanuel will be guided by the scriptural pronouncement in 1Tim. 4:17. We will join him to sing the victory song, post elections.

Comrade Ini Ememobong
State Publicity Secretary
People’s Democratic Party
Akwa Ibom State
13122018