OKOBO PEOPLE VOW TO RESIST IMPOSITION OF CHAIRMANSHIP ASPIRANT BY FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL ...... GOVERNOR MANDATED ME TO CHOOSE WHO BECOMES NEXT CHAIRMAN--- EKPENYONG NTEKIM ..WE WILL RESIST IMPOSITION- YOUTHS

By Bassey Dominic

The last nocturnal and needless political meeting masterminded by a former Akwa Ibom State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Barr. Ekpenyong Ntekim, which was dominated by few PDP Members and some youths suspected to be loyal to   All Progressive Congress(APC) in attendance, expectedly left much to be desired.

That was about one in a series of such meetings that would be held in that manner in a dungeon where only one voice reign supreme in the delusion that the people of Okobo can be fooled.  

Of course, two principal items on the agenda of that meeting were, first, how to presumptuously arrogate duties onto oneself and illegally use the name of the Governor of the State, His Excellency, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, to say what  Governor Udom Emmanuel we know never said and can never say. 

The second item on the one-man-squad agenda of the meeting item was to deceive the gullible and enthrone or force selfish and  personal wishes over the common will of the people which was endorsed consensus that  has been the reason for peace in Okobo over the past years. That was why at the end of the meeting, what reigned  were sighs of disappointments and disinclinations. 

In plainer words, Barr. Ekpenyong Ntekim, with gross disregards to stakeholders and the followership of PDP in Okobo Local Government Area, singlehandedly and mischievously, arranged the meeting with the sole aim of dropping the name of the Governor and making those in attendance see him as representative of the Governor. This becomes more obvious at close  cursory and close examination of speech during the meeting. 

Chief  Ntekim, whom his utterances and body-language have clearly shown as someone desperate and hungry for political control and pocketing of PDP in Okobo, told the people that Governor Udom Emmanuel had mandated and therefore gave him the authority to produce both the incoming chairman of the Council and all the councillors who shall work with him. In saying so, perhaps unknown to him, he smeared mud on the Governor’s celebrated love for the tenets of democracy, where he encourages that everybody be given a level-playing ground to vie for offices and the electorate to vote them without duress. 

As seen in the just concluded PDP State Congress, this principle which Governor Udom Emmanuel has religiously stuck to has accounted for the infectious peace, harmony and progress the party and indeed the Governor Udom administration have witnessed in the state since 2015. It is therefore smacks of insolence and wild assumptions for Barr.  to have told the people that the Governor had asked him to destroy the pillars and cut of the harmless ropes that have held the party and its faithful for years across the State.

Bent on having his way, it was therefore no surprise that Barr. Ntekim schemed and forced his surrogate, Mr. Sylvester Attah, on the people, thinking in his self-foolery  that was all as far as he was concerned because, according to him, the Governor has chosen him above every other person and the voice of the people as king-maker for Okobo local government area. 

Having laundered enough money in getting his way, it was therefore not surprising that the newly elected Chapter Chairman of the party, Mr. Etekamba Ukpong, himself a nominee of Barr. Ekpenyong Ntekim, as well as Chief Eyo Okon, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Sky Point Hotels, Oron, have fallen headlong into his machinations. 

With anti-party manoeuvres in Okobo Local Government and in the State Capital, should Barr. Ntekim even have the face to play the leader in Okobo contemporary politics of togetherness, growth and composite development? As it stands, the entire Okobo party structure and electorate can easily identify Barr. Ntekim as “The man of petitions and conspiracy”. 

That is to say that neither his manoeuvres nor unfolding attitude is anything new to Okobo people. Was it not this same Barr. Ekpenyong who even when he did not have an atom of evidence, but in the madness to distort facts recklessly maligned the incumbent Chief Judge of the State, Justice Godwin  Abraham and campaigned for his resignation? Ntekim was and still  serving as Governing Board Chairman, Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Ikot Osurua, when the petition was done against the Chief Judge of the State.

 If he loved decency and harmony in party so much, why is he always found limping on two opinions, one leg in PDP and one in Chieftaincy? Having gone on hibernation in APC for years, he has now returned to the PDP to cause crisis, scatter the party and then return in future to APC.  But here in Okobo, unfortunately, he claims to be a commando. 

It was after Okobo Youth had sat down together and thoroughly scrutinised Barr. Ekpenyong’s detestable record of inconsistency and independability that they rose with voice and pronounced him a persona non grata. Indeed, on what foundation would youths of Okobo build their trust in a prodigal politician like Ntekim, when they are already enjoying peace from the present structure of the party in Okobo? 

If not for anything else, the last straw that broke the Carmel’s back was for the  former Attorney-General of the State to misrepresent the Governor Udom Emmanuel, whom the youths look up to as mentor and model of functional and participatory democracy in Nigeria. 

On the premise of the underscored, youths of Okobo who prefered anonimty therefore reaffirmed their unalloyed support to Governor Udom Emmanuel, leader of the party in the State. They equally acknowledged the existing leadership/stakeholders structures of the party in Okobo and believe strongly that the Governor can always communicate through them in critical times of need.  The youths also respect and endorse the status quo of whatever zoning arrangement has been in operation, that has made for peace in the local government.

For these and many other reasons founded on collective goodwill of the people, youths of Okobo wish that PDP at both state and local government levels devise means to call Barr. Ekpenyong Ntekim to order and save him from the futility of a wild goose chase! This is the unified position of Okobo youths.