… SUSPENDS CHAIRMAN OVER CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE

The Akwa Ibom State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria has suspended its state chairman, Mr. Aniekan Akpan, for congratulating Governor Godswill Akpabio and accepting the last Tuesday's gubernatorial election in the state.

The resolution to axe Akpan, who was in Government House, Uyo, on Saturday alongside his Labour Party counterpart, Mr. Etim Stern, to personally congratulate the governor, was taken on Sunday in an extra-ordinary executive meeting of the party.

The former state chairman of the party, Dr. Amadu Attai, who briefed the press on the suspension order, said the party read with utter consternation the deliberate falsehood being bandied about in the media by the state government in conspiratorial alliance with the suspended party chairman.

'It is clear beyond doubt that this is a a failed hatchet job by the Peoples Democrsatic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State to hypnotise and confuse the boiling minds of the electorate, who are victims of recent electoral robbery in a bid to lend legitimacy to their inordinate ambition to capture power and cling unto same at all cost.

'For the avoidance of doubt, we make bold to repeat the obvious that this great party completely disassociates itself from the actions of Mr. Aniekan Akpan, who is, to say the least, on a frolic of his own. At no point in time did we authorise such outright falsehood as conveyed by Mr. Aniekan Akpan.'

Consequently, the party said the erstwhile chairman remained suspended while a seven-man disciplinary committee had been set up to investigate and recommend appropriate sanctions against him in respect of his unauthorised congratulatory message and acceptance of election results; the millions of naira the erstwhile chairman allegedly collected for the purpose of the cancelled April 2, 2011 elections, which remained unaccounted for; and the return of party assets in his possession.

The party said Akpan had the right to defend himself even with a legal counsel within the period but failure to do would so would not to deter the disciplinary committee from concluding its job.