Governor Umo Eno’s aides’ involvement within the latest airport reception for his predecessor, Udom Emmanuel, at Akwa Ibom State has continued to stir controversy.
Mr Emmanuel was within the state in early September for his cousin’s burial.
In an unique interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday, 23 September, Otobasi Udo, the APC spokesperson in Akwa Ibom, stated the APC members who took half within the airport reception had been “inconsequential”.
Akwa Ibom celebrated the thirty eighth anniversary of the state’s creation on Tuesday.
In a statewide broadcast to mark the anniversary, Governor Eno paid tribute to the state’s founding fathers and his predecessors, together with Mr Emmanuel.
“Let me finish this broadcast by once more interesting to you, my expensive folks, to stay united, peaceable, and hopeful.
“Because the political season unfolds, I urge us to not permit the flaming ardour of politics to divide us. Elections will come and go, however the Akwa Ibom spirit of affection and brotherhood will stay. We’re working Akwa Ibom United throughout occasion strains,” Mr Eno stated.
Within the broadcast, the governor reiterated his help for President Bola Tinubu’s bid for re-election in 2027.
Mr Eno, who contested and gained the 2023 Akwa Ibom governorship election underneath the PDP, defected to Mr Tinubu’s occasion, the APC, in June 2025. He cited his want to help the president’s re-election bid and join Akwa Ibom to the centre as the explanation for his defection.
Till Mr Eno’s defection, the PDP had ruled the oil-rich state for 26 years, for the reason that restoration of democratic rule in Nigeria in 1999.
The defection is inflicting confusion and suspicion as his predecessor, Mr Emmanuel, and another politicians within the state have refused to defect to the APC.
Political blackmail now thrives in Akwa Ibom, with politicians accusing each other of not being “absolutely loyal” to Governor Eno.
‘Cautious celebration’
On the Akwa Ibom anniversary day, the APC spokesperson within the state, Mr Udo, a lawyer, printed an announcement on a WhatsApp platform, celebrating successive leaders of the state, together with Mr Emmanuel, for his or her contribution to the state’s growth.
The Chairperson of the APC within the state, Stephen Ntukekpo, was extra beneficiant in his reward for the previous governor, Mr Emmanuel, who he stated “steered the state with prudent industrialisation and financial diversification”.
“His efforts in attracting industries, increasing aviation with Ibom Air, and consolidating peace and safety marked a brand new period of progress for Akwa Ibom State,” Mr Ntukekpo stated.
PREMIUM TIMES pointed to the APC spokesperson, Mr Udo, that the occasion’s assertion on the state anniversary praised Mr Emmanuel, whereas some aides of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, vilified Governor Eno’s aides who obtained the previous governor on the Uyo airport.
“I’m not going to decide on right this moment to say this one is unhealthy or this one is sweet; everybody who had the chance to rule this state, we (as a folks and a state) had been moved ahead to the place we’re right this moment by way of their contributions,” Mr Udo responded, cautiously.
Our reporter requested him the place the APC locations Mr Emmanuel within the context of “Akwa Ibom United throughout occasion strains” as advocated by Governor Eno.
“He (Emmanuel) just isn’t a member of our occasion; our occasion locations him as a former governor of the state,” he responded.
Our reporter requested him if it was okay for APC members to obtain Mr Emmanuel on the airport.
“Was Governor Umo Eno or the APC chairman within the state there? These are the principal members of the occasion within the state.
“I wish to consider that those that had been there, so far as the occasion is anxious, had been inconsequential,” he responded.
Assaults on Gov Eno’s aides
Ata Ikiddeh, an in depth ally of Mr Akpabio, has twice attacked Mr Eno’s aides who obtained Mr Emmanuel on the airport, questioning their loyalty to the governor.
Earlier this month, PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Ikiddeh and Anietie Ekong, a media aide to Mr Akpabio, referred to as for sanctions in opposition to the officers who publicly welcomed Mr Emmanuel.
“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 Emmanuel,” Mr Ekong wrote on Fb about Mr Emmanuel’s go to, calling out the appointees of Governor Eno to “state whom they shall serve: their current boss or the previous boss.”
Governor Eno confirmed to a web-based newspaper, Coverage and Politics, that he had learn the piece by Mr Akpabio’s aide, however stated he wouldn’t struggle his predecessor.
“For me, these to be careful for usually are not 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.
In the meantime, not one of the former civilian governors of Akwa Ibom—Messrs Akpabio, Emmanuel, and Victor Attah—attended the standard inter-denominational church service and the banquet organised by Mr Eno’s administration to mark the state’s thirty eighth anniversary.
It’s unclear why all the previous governors stayed away from the occasions.
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‘Trendy insults’
PREMIUM TIMES spoke final week with an aide to Mr Eno, who requested that his title not be disclosed within the report as a result of he was not authorised to talk on the fallout of the previous governor’s go to to Akwa Ibom.
The aide stated the requires Mr Eno to sack them for receiving Mr Emmanuel on the airport are “trendy insults” to the governor, particularly for the reason that governor has dismissed the reported rift together with his predecessor.
“We’re starting to query the devotion, loyalty, and allegiance of components like Anietie Ekong and Ata Ikiddeh to the management of Pastor Umo Eno, who’s the only chief of our Celebration – the APC in the whole Akwa Ibom State.
“Because the chief of the APC, Governor Umo Eno wields huge powers and is deserving of all quantities of loyalty from aborigines and even new members of our occasion.
“The fashionable insults should finish forthwith!” he stated.
The aide stated he was talking the minds of different aides, together with commissioners, who he stated usually are not proud of the torrential assaults from Mr Akpabio’s aide and allies.
He stated the assaults on them are an indication of desperation from folks with “wanton thirst for appointment and scheming for dislodgment of others”.
“We should remind them that our boss, the governor, is a examined clergy who believes that those that labored within the farm when others like Anietie Ekong and Ata Ikiddeh fought to cease the planting season should eat the fruits from the farm to their fill.
“We strongly warn the duo in opposition to additional insults on us and the indiscriminate effort to color all appointees of Governor Eno as disloyal folks.”
