A’Ibom Govt: Udoedehe’s Assassination claim Is False, Baseless

SAN FRANCISCO, July 31, (THEWILL) – The Akwa Ibom State Government on Wednesday reacted to the claim by the governorship candidate of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the 2011 general elections in the State, Senator James Udoedehe, that the state Government was after his life.

Describing the claim as false and baseless, the State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr. Aniekan Umanah, while addressing the media in Uyo,the state capital, dismissed the statement credited to Udoedehe and published in some newspapers as unfortunate.

Umanah said it was clearly a rehearsal of the regime of blackmail that characterised the ACN governorship campaigns during the 2011 elections.

The commissioner maintained that it was insignificant that the same ACN governorship candidate who led a group which burnt over 500 vehicles and tricycles bought by the state Government for mass transportation, burnt and destroyed public buildings including the campaign office of President Goodluck Jonathan, caused the death of many people and destroyed other public and private properties in the State, could turn around to accuse the state Government of planning to kill him.

Umanah said in spite of the antics of ACN, the main opposition and the campaign of calumny that characterised their approach to the 2011 elections, they were still defeated in the field as well as serial court judgments that followed the election.

He noted that in spite of the attempt by the CAN candidate to whip-up ethnic sentiment and cause division in the State, he was roundly defeated by Governor Godswill Akpabio in the election.

Umanah said the claim by Senator Udoedeghe that ACN members were killed in Ikot Ekpene w as total falsehood, saying the people who were said to have been killed officially were known Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members.

The commissioner, who added that all the vehicles burnt in the mayhem were PDP vehicles, therefore challenged Senator Udoedeghe to produce any report showing that ACN members were killed or had their assets destroyed during the March 22, 2011 violence.

Umanah stressed that it is on record that Akpabio has succeeded in turning the fortunes of Akwa Ibom around for the good through massive infrastructural development spread across the nooks and crannies of the state.