Ata Ikiddeh, a detailed ally of Nigeria’s Senate President Godswill Akpabio, has attacked aides of Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State, accusing them of betraying the governor by going to the airport to welcome the governor’s predecessor, Udom Emmanuel.
On Thursday, some politicians, together with aides of Mr Eno, trooped to the airport to welcome Mr Emmanuel, who was in Akwa Ibom for his cousin’s burial – his first go to to the state after his successor, Mr Eno, whom he helped to turn into governor, left the PDP for the APC. A number of the aides additionally served the previous whereas in workplace.
Describing the reception as a “honey lure” laid by Mr Emmanuel, Mr Ikiddeh, a former aide to Mr Akpabio, stated that Mr Eno’s aides who “fell for it” have demonstrated their lack of loyalty to the governor and can’t be trusted.
In keeping with Mr Ikiddeh, whereas Mr Emmanuel would have banished these aides, Mr Eno was silent about it. Mr Ikiddeh warned that the aides mustn’t benefit from the “governor’s meekness”.
“Mr Emmanuel might posture because the opposition chief, however let nobody mistake Mr Eno’s silence for weak point. Meekness isn’t weak point. Courtesy isn’t give up.
“These aides of Governor Eno, who bumped into Mr Emmanuel’s honey lure on the airport, have already marked themselves—they can’t be trusted. Below Mr Emmanuel, they’d have been banished into political exile,” Mr Ikiddeh wrote on Fb, suggesting that the aides must be sanctioned, warning that Mr Eno’s persistence shouldn’t be mistaken for naivety.
Whereas arriving at his Awa Iman nation dwelling in Onna Native Authorities Space of the state, Mr Emmanuel was handled to a fanfare reception by supporters, who held banners, waved the PDP flags, and chanted songs in solidarity with the previous governor, prompting Mr Ikiddeh to dismiss the go to as “sheer political theatre disguised as a household occasion”.
“Each drumbeat, each banner, each employed hand final week bore his (Mr Emmanuel’s) signature. And everybody is aware of nothing in politics is free. So, who funded it? Who paid for the carnival? The fingers all level a method—Mr Emmanuel. Am I blaming him – No! They are saying politics is a sport,” Mr Ikiddeh wrote.
Not the primary Akpabio ally to criticise Eno’s aides
Mr Ikiddeh isn’t the primary ally of Mr Akpabio to demand sanctions towards Governor Eno’s aides who obtained Mr Emmanuel on the airport; earlier, Anietie Ekong, a media aide to Mr Akpabio, made an identical name.
“What I discovered most annoying and regarding are the appointees of Governor Eno who trooped out to welcome their former boss and rubbed it in our faces the place their allegiance and loyalty stand. They stumbled over themselves to take selfies with the previous governor and, with out qualms, splashed (the images) in our faces on social media; their our bodies could also be with Governor Eno, however their hearts are with Mr Udom Emmanuel,” Mr Ekong wrote on Fb about Mr Emmanuel’s go to.
“That is me calling out the appointees of Governor Umo Eno to state immediately, whom they shall serve: their current boss or the previous boss,” Mr Ekong added.
Governor Eno confirmed to an internet newspaper, Coverage and Politics, that he had learn the piece by Mr Akpabio’s aide, however stated he wouldn’t battle his predecessor.
“For me, these to be careful for will not be those that pay respect to our leaders within the open. It’s those that sneak surreptitiously to inform lies and plant evil seeds and but come to smile with you,” the newspaper quoted Mr Eno as saying.
The Coverage and Politics report is authored by Etim Etim, the paper’s writer and editor-in-chief. Mr Etim, a former editorial board member on the Guardian newspaper, is a chieftain of the APC in Akwa Ibom.
Loyalty debates, Eno’s guarantees earlier than defection
Earlier than leaving the PDP for APC, Mr Eno repeatedly informed the individuals he was not doing social gathering politics within the state, stressing that he might settle for different appointees refusing to hitch him, however that his commissioners, whom he described as his “first eleven”, should be a part of him within the APC or resign their appointments.
And after defection, he doubled down – integrating “Akwa Ibom United,” a phrase he used to seek advice from governance throughout social gathering strains, into the APC slogan within the state, apparently to persuade those that his insurance policies will not be party-based.
In a leaked video, which led to the eviction of Channels TV crew from Authorities Home Press Corps, Mr Eno had additionally promised that he wouldn’t dissolve the state govt council, however he may rejig.
READ ALSO: Gov Eno reacts to rumbling that adopted predecessor’s go to to Akwa Ibom
“Don’t let individuals poison your thoughts. You’ll be able to solely go away this council should you’re not performing. Till I end my first time period, I’m not going to dissolve the (state govt) council once more. However because it goes, I would rejig, drop two, add two,” he informed the commissioners, stressing, “however it isn’t going to be based mostly on partisan politics.”
On the way forward for the PDP, the social gathering, whose platform he turned governor, Mr Eno vowed to retain management of the social gathering construction within the state in order that “thieves don’t hijack and use it to battle towards him.”
These insurance policies seem to have unsettled Akpabio’s camp, who’re apparently contemplating the continual alliance between Mr Eno’s aides with Mr Emmanuel as an indication of disloyalty to Mr Eno, and an act of serving two masters.
