–Aniekan Akpan signs pact with Gov. Eno to maintain PDP structure
–Akpabio says PDP umbrella in A’Ibom is torn with hundred holes
By Shadrach Okon
Barely two years after 2023 elections which ushered in the current administration of Governor Umo Eno, in Akwa Ibom State, the political atmosphere in Akwa Ibom State, is charged again ahead of 2027, elections.
The Guide Newspaper confirmed that the recent political tension in Akwa Ibom State, is as a result of plans made by the State Chief Executive, Pastor Umo Bassey Eno, to defect from the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), in Akwa Ibom State.
The development has sent shivers down the spine of many politicians in Akwa Ibom State, especially those still loyal to Ex-governor, Udom Emmanuel which Governor Umo Eno retained in his cabinet the Guide Newspaper can authoritatively report.
A source who confided in the Guide Newspaper revealed that after series of strategic meetings between Governor Umo Eno, and the PDP Chairman in Akwa Ibom State, Elder Aniekan Akpan, signed a pact with the governor to remain in PDP and maintain the existing political structure of the party in the State while the governor is moving with his cabinet members to the ruling All Progressives Congress( APC).
Our source revealed that Aniekan Akpan, had earlier intended to defect with Governor Umo Eno to APC but was later advised by the governor to remain in PDP following the plot of some politicians within the PDP to hijack the party and form a new structure that will plot the governor’s failure in 2027, gubernatorial race in the State.
Governor Umo Eno during a high level political negotiations with PDP executives in Akwa Ibom State, had agreed to secretly fund PDP in Akwa Ibom State, while in APC to maintain his interest and influence across party lines, our source had revealed.
The Guide Newspaper reports that Eno, for the first time since the news of his plans to dump the party that brought him to power surfaced in the mainstream media, revealed to his EXCO members openly last Thursday, that he will be leaving the PDP for APC soon. The governor who dropped the news about his plan to defect from PDP to APC while addressing the State EXCO during the May edition of the monthly two-day Projects Delivery and Performance Review Meeting held on Thursday afternoon at the Banquet Hall of the Government House, Uyo had mandated his Commissioners and all government appointees to get ready to move with him to APC or be prepared to resign.
“Anybody who claims he is not aware of my intention to leave PDP is still living in the 18th century.” Governor Eno had said during the meeting.
Meanwhile, the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio on Thursday, while speaking at APC National Summit in Abuja, openly mocked the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), citing its supposed collapse in the South-South region.
Declaring Tinubu as the sole candidate of the APC and the Nigerian population in 2027, Akpabio mocked opposition political parties over escalating internal crisis ravaging them, saying that all other political parties in the country have been turned into shreds.
Akpabio, went further to amuse the gathering by describing the umbrella of PDP, in Akwa Ibom State, as a torn umbrella with 100 holes on it.
Hear Him: “I went to my village and I saw the umbrella of the PDP and it has 100 holes. Very soon you will hear. I’m not the one to break the news but our national chairman has already broken the news that everything in the South South has collapsed for you.”
Akwa Ibom State, before recent political development has been under the stronghold of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999.
