AKS 2015 Guber Race: Assembly Plan Traditional Embargo for Traitors
Stakeholders of Eket Senatorial District may have concluded plans to introduce and place traditional injunction on any indigene of the district who betrays the position of the district in the forth-coming 2015 governorship elections in the state.
The district has at last urged her contenders to start unveiling themselves and to make their manifestoes known to the people of the state.
The Chairman of the Akwa Ibom South(Eket) Senatorial District Assembly, Chief Nduese Essien who spoke during the third meeting of the Assembly in Eket last weekend said it was pertinent for all sons and daughters of the district positioning to play the spoiler's role to come back to the fold and claim their birthrights.
He said the need to sanction betrayers of the cause of the district has informed the involvement of royal fathers in the programme of the Assembly.
The former lawmaker said the number of aspirants noticed in the senatorial district has swollen from 12 to 17 in the last few weeks, with Eket federal constituency having 7, and six from Oron with four from Ikot Abasi.
Chief Essien who chaired the event, said following Governor Akpabio's flag-off of his interest in the 2015 senatorial race and announcement of a campaign manager, there was no need for the Eket aspirants to wait no further especially sincethe governorship election was superior to senate elections.
“By the zoning principle of the Peoples Democratic Party in Akwa Ibom it is the turn of Akwa Ibom South(Eket) Senatorial District to produce the Governor in 2015. If not by zoning then it comes by rotation, equity, justice, fairplay, good governance and all other known and unknown principles of human relationship and mutual co-existence.” He enthused.
The former Minister of Lands and Housing maintained that the Assembly is not about a particular aspirant nor any ethnic group, but was out to ensure that the most credible candidate emerges from the senatorial district to replicate the achievements of Governor Akpabio and even surpass his records in the overall interest of the entire state.
On his part, the Minister of Science and Technology Prof Ita Bassey Ewa who led the delegation from Oro nation to the forum, said there was no going back on the battle for the Senatorial District to cling the governorship seat in 2015.
He maintained his earlier stand that the people of Akwa Ibom South will not compromise their earlier position and will settle for nothing lesser than the position of Governor of Akwa Ibom State in 2015, especially as the district produces the vast load of resources used in the state.
His view was corroborated by other speakers at the event who maintained that after suffering years of environmental degradation from oil exploitation, it was pertinent to allow them also feel a sense of belonging in the polity.
But Chief Mbong Mbong who also bared his mind at the forum differed slightly by saying that the decision on which Eket senatorial district indigene should be chosen from her array of aspirants should be on the front burner , since the right of producing the governor had logically been given to the district already. While Prof Des Wilson insisted that only credible persons should be presented to the people of the State.
A communiqué issued at the end of the meeting further warned all sons and daughters of the senatorial district against accepting any lesser role in the next gubernatorial race.
The Akwa Ibom South (Eket) Senatorial Assembly which said she is principally concerned with the sensitization and mobilization of her people for the 2015 governorship project, further maintained that following the demise of her prominent leaders such as Justice Udo Udoma, Chief U J Esuene, Senator Victor Akan, Dr Clement Isong, there were even more competent persons from the district that can make the state proud if given the opportunity in 2015.