DISHONOURABLE TREATIES OF HONOURABLE DAN AKPAN ON NATION NEWSPAPER RE: AKPABIO'S SECRET AGENDA FOR 2015
Of recent, there has been a re-insurgence of cheap blackmails by faceless individuals and their surrogates who take pleasure in disparaging the person and government of His Excellency, Chief (Dr) Godswill Akpabio, CON; however, as major stakeholder and with a firm belief in the uncommon transformation currently being enjoyed in our state, we feel obliged to respond to the misleading and mischievous treatise by Hon.
Dan Akpan, member representing Etinan Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, as published in The Nation Newspaper of Wednesday, March 12, 2014, Page 51 where he attacked the highly applauded ongoing Town Hall Meetings.
Suffice it to say that every well-meaning indigene in Akwa Ibom State is savouring in the euphoria of the magnificent dividends of democracy doled out to the people of the State by the visionary and exemplary leadership of His Excellency Chief Godswill Akpabio and have used the town hall meetings as an avenue to thank the Governor for keeping his promises.
It is therefore curious that Hon.
Akpan, who is expected to speak and project the interest of his constituents in the National Assembly, but rather has remained unproductive, suddenly found his voice (or is it his pen?) and has begun to attack the very people who elected him, and chooses to undermine a platform that provides an interface between the people and government.
Since his election in 2011, this is the very first time we have heard Hon.
Dan Akpan reaching out to the media and sadly though, his only need of the media is to blackmail and pour invectives on the government and people of his State.
Other lawmakers, who make contributions on the floor of the National Assembly, use the media to showcase their representations and projects they have attracted to their constituencies.
Dan Akpan's indiscretion was long foreseen when he usually went on tour of local government councils as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Assembly.
At such times, allegations of extortions and blackmails rented the air as Chairmen of respective local government areas lamented his incorrigible appetite for financial inducement.
These allegations of financial impropriety against Dan Akpan is not different from the controversial scandal during his time at Mobil Producing Nigeria where he worked in the Purchasing Department (Now Field Services, Procurement Department) as a contract staff.
So contentious was his time that he was ingloriously sacked by the management of the oil company under controversial circumstances, at a time his contemporaries where having their appointments confirmed.
Painful and time wasting as this exercise may be, we as concerned indigenes of the state find it pertinent to state categorically as a statesman that the fabrications and baseless allegations churned out by Hon.
Dan Akpan, are nothing but false ranting of a frustrated lawmaker who is still learning the ropes in the hallowed chambers after three years, and with only 13 months left to the end of his tenure.
Firstly, the lying lawmaker said that there was a 'well informed advice of a cross-section of the elders, PDP leaders and youth caucus in the State' against the on-going town hall meetings.
Yet, he still went on to mention notable names present at the town hall sessions in Eket and Etinan, such as the Paramount Ruler of Onna, Edidem Akpabio Udo Ukpa; former Governor Idongesit Nkanga; Speaker of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Hon.
Sam Ikon; former federal minister and national lawmaker, Chief Nduese Essien; Ntisong Ibibio, Obong Essien Ekidem; and Hon.
Onofiok Luke.
This self-contradiction leaves people amazed at the magnitude of bare face lies that an honourable lawmaker can churn out.
Are they aforementioned people not in the category of Elders, PDP leaders and youths? The lawmaker also made a mockery of himself when he alleged that he refused to attend the town hall meeting because some people he hoped to see at the event, where not invited.
Does this mean that the lawmaker has no voice of his own, and was depending on other persons to put words on his lips? In any case, is it not shameful that a lawmaker whose interest should be to use every available forum to advocate for the right of his people would find such a miserable excuse that a few people could not attend a meeting as such he chose to boycott such an important meeting? How many times have the trio of Mr.
Umana Okon Umana, Otuekong Sunny Jackson and Chief Nse Akpan escorted Dan Akpan to the Green Chambers where his constant absence is as conspicuous as it is embarrassing to his people? At the Town Hall meeting in Eket which Dan Akpan admitted watching on live television, the federal lawmaker, Hon.
(Barr.
) Bassey Dan-Abia(Jnr) used the platform to commend Governor Akpabio for embarking on the very democratic initiative of town hall meetings, and also justified his tenure as representative of Eket Federal Constituency.
Contrary to the childish lies peddled by the wolf-crying lawmaker, we are aware that the Secretary to the State Government, Mr.
Udom Gabriel Emmanuel extended official invitations to all National Assembly members and complemented same with a personal call to Senator Ita Enang as the Chairman of the caucus of the State in the National Assembly in order to mobilize his colleagues for the Town Hall meetings.
Even if the mails did not arrive on Dan Akpan's table, he possibly cannot deny the fact that the town hall meeting was widely publicized in various national and local media; and if he claims he was not aware, why did he venture to tune his television to watch the town hall meetings at Eket and Etinan Federal Constituencies? May be that's how he sits at home to watch proceedings at the House of Representatives.
While we ponder on what manner of invitation the lawmaker needed, we are rest assured that Mr.
Dan Akpan may have learnt a thing or two from his senior colleague the distinguished Senator Effong Bob at the town hall meeting in Etinan, who said, 'I came down because this is very important to me and our people.
And to show the importance we attach to politics of interaction, we must attend.
So anybody who feels he is somebody and fails to attend a meeting of this sort is not worth a mention.
' It is not difficult to visualize Dan Akpan's agony when he failed in his attempt to dissuade his constituents from attending the meeting and even sponsored miscreants to disrupt the events.
For everyone who has watched the town hall meetings, it is very obvious that it has afforded an opportunity for the government to appraise its achievements and progress in the respective federal constituencies and interact with the constituents.
For example, in Eket Town Hall Meeting the Governor listed over 455 completed and commissioned community projects executed, while 444 were counted in Etinan, which is Dan Akpan's federal constituency.
Among major projects which the Governor received applause from Etinan Federal Constituency was the completed Enen Nsit Road which traverses all the three local government areas in Dan's Federal Constituency, and has four bridges, as well as the ongoing Etinan-Eket dualized road.
The musings of Hon.
Dan Akpan have completely defied all principles of logic and reasoning and begs the question on how such a person can persuade his intelligent colleagues to support a cause for his people.
This deep inefficiency is pronounced in the manner Akpan deceptively pre-empts the town hall meetings, as an avenue for imposition of candidates and/or exclusion of aspirants for the 2015 general elections.
As illogical and deficit in reasoning as this may sound, we are compelled to wonder if a supposed lawmaker, who has since lost touch with his people, arrogated to himself some extra-terrestrial powers of clairvoyance that enables him to know the outcome of the meetings before the conclusion.
The tale-bearing lawmaker was unable to explain how a feedback mechanism such as the town hall meeting could be synonymous with imposition of candidates and breach of democratic principles, as he alleged.
Could this possibly be why he fails to hold constituency briefings and periodic meetings with his people as their representative? The same person who claimed ignorance of the existence of the town hall meeting, in the same breath said 'I am aware that the Governor is planning to convene a meeting of the party at the end of his town hall meeting ', a typical case of double standard and insincerity.
In this same vein, Dan Akpan further stuns everyone when he condemns the opinion of those who spoke in support of the principles of zoning as it concerns the 2015 Governorship election at the town hall meeting, including the Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, yet he chose to become a meddlesome interloper in matters of Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District and the senate seat of a district that he has no business speaking for? It is only renegades who engage in mischievous blackmails against Governor Akpabio, even when the Governor as the leader of the party in the state, has repeatedly averred that nobody will be barred from contesting in the 2015 general elections in the state, and that only the popular opinion of the people in respect of equity, justice and fairness, will determine the governorship position in the State in 2015.
This latest careless media attack on the democratically viable and acceptable town hall meetings between a government and its people, smacks an unfortunate display of ignorance arising from self denial and delusion by the perpetrator(s); and it is obvious that Dan Akpan is just a part of a series of blackmail and media onslaught mounted by Obong Umana Okon Umana and his lieutenants who believe desperately that the governorship of Akwa Ibom State in 2015 is a do or die affair.
It is pertinent to note that we have elected to spend invaluable time to respond to the dishonourable treatise of the misguided honourable Dan Akpan in the interest of the discerning members of the public so that they would not be misled into believing the current string of blackmail orchestrated by Dan Akpan and his gang who have opted to paint the state in bad light for their selfish interest.
It is important to state that posterity does not judge any administration on account of the quantum of blackmail it responded to, but rather the legacies left behind.
We therefore thank the people of the State and other Nigerians for their continuous support and endorsement of Governor Akpabio's uncommon transformation programmes which have changed a once backwater state to a development model and reference point in the history of Nigeria.
As Governor Akpabio's town hall meetings continue to attract massive accolades and plaudits across the state and beyond, we in Oro Solidarity Movement wish to appeal to members of the public to discountenance the bizarre media ramblings from Dan Akpan and his co-travellers who have mortgaged their surnames and taken up residence in hotels in Abuja with the sole task of launching unbridled media attacks against the government and people of the State; for as the bible says in Hosea 8:7, 'they that sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind'.
Written By Victor Unuyu & Bassey Uwe Akwa Ibom State