Date Published: 05/09/11

Akpabio is A Very Ruthless Man and A Liar -John Akpan-Udoedeghe
Says:

• He has impoverished and intimidated his people
• He can't explain the whereabouts of N800 billion received in the last 3 years
• Why Akwa Ibom lost Oil Wells to Rivers

John Akpan-Udoedeghe

John Akpan-Udoedeghe, was the Action Congress of Nigeria (AC N) governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom State, in the last election. He has a PhD in Sociology of Development from the University of Calabar. He is a two time senator, minister of state, Federal Capital Territory, and business man married with kids. He spoke with pointblanknews.com in Abuja recently.

WHY ARE YOU NOT HAPPY WITH THE STATE OF THINGS IN AKWA IBOM

I feel guilty because I was part of the movement that made Godswill Akpabio governor, so its incumbent on me to do what I am doing. I feel obliged at this level. I want to give back all what the state has done for me. At this level I am not thinking about money or properties because God has blessed me with all those, I am thinking about what to give back. Akpabio has not done well. I have nothing personal against him but his style of governance. Look at the state of insecurity, his vendetta style, murders, kidnappings and the way he is applying the resources of the state. It is very sad, and the people are suffering. He harbors so much prejudice, which is unbecoming of a leader. He uses state resources to his own personal benefit. How do you explain the purchase of 1,500 brand new Hilux trucks used for his campaign?...But he has failed to apply such resources to tackle insecurity in the state.

THE AKPABIO CAMP ALLEGE THAT YOU ARE ANGRY BECAUSE HE DID NOT ALLOW YOU PURCHASE THE OKU IBOKU PAPER MILL

The governor has nothing new to say…He lies a lot, all in a bid to portray me and other opponents in bad light. What happened was that when I left the senate I bided for it as a business man. We won the bid but we needed a bank guarantee from the state to finance it..there was a deposit we needed to pay. We started when Gov Victor Attah was there. He refused to assist us in getting the guarantee. So when Akpabio became governor, we approached him. We wanted to revamp the place and bring industrialization to the state, but he refused to assist us with getting the bank guarantee. In his usual style, he saw it as empowering us, so he blocked it. What’s wrong with empowering your people? After all Ben Bruce got so much from him to build his gallery and pay off some debts. At the end of the day Akpabio used one of his proxy companies to get the place for himself, that’s Akpabio for you.

YOU WERE FRIENDS AT WHAT POINT DID YOU PART WAYS

Initially we saw him as a very nice man, who wanted to assist in making genuine contributions. So we decided to back him of the 52 aspirants. We took him to ex President Olusegun Obasanjo through Andy Uba. Every one said I should support his candidacy including Umanah Umanah. The moment he became governor he became so mean and ruthless. He became a liar, serves satan. He destroys families, desecrates the body of Christ, destroys traditional institution, …what really caused the problem was that he wanted to give the third tier of government in the state to an amalgamation of cultists. He made them chairmen, vice chairmen, councilors, supervisors etc…these are supposed to be custodians of the mandate of the grassroots. These were evil men, people of questionable characters. Go around, he has done nothing, he talks about flyover and E-Library..the I-pad can store over 1000 books, what’s E-library, what’s flyover to the people who have been impoverished. He lies a lot. He told his commissioner of finance I wanted to kill him, the man told me. Every penny he has today he got from government. He has used state cash to enrich himself and his family. His brother took a bank statement to the United States Embassy for a visa. In that account was N1.2 Billion. The Embassy was suspicious, refused him and the matter was referred to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), but the matter died there. He is just fooling people with phony projects. The claim of free basic education in the state is a fraud. All are provided for in the UBE program but he claims he is the one doing it. He has not been able to defend what he gets side by side what he spends…the figures do not match whats on ground, go and see for yourself. He is just sharing money to his cronies. He had nothing before he became governor, he only floated one fraudulent communication company he used to siphon governments funds. I was a made man before I became a local government chairmen, later two time senator, and minster. Akpabio is now a billionaire, but I will assure him, he will be made to face the music after he is kicked out of office…He cannot explain the N800 billion he received from internally generated and federal allocation.

THERE IS ALSO THE ALLEGATION OF A N700M FRAUD WHILE YOU WERE MINISTER OF STATE AT THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY

All lies being peddled by Akpabio because he is very uncomfortable with the way our people regard me, and the followership I have mustered. There is no way the system of the federal government allows a minister of state to pocket N700 million…its impossible. Even the minister cannot because there is the process of tendering and due process, and the Federal Executive council etc.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY IF YOU BECOME GOVERNOR?

I will focus on the strong points of the state, take security very seriously. I will put the issue of murders, kidnappings on the priority list. There will be no secrecy as regards how much we get and how much we spend. I won’t waste resources on projects like E-Library when the people are hungry, able bodied men and women are roaming the streets. We will invest in agriculture. I will bring in the Ghana and South African models, where you empower the people directly, set them up directly. 55 per cent would go into development, create primary industries, , revamp chemical industries. I will run a transparent government devoid of favoritism and vendetta. It will be a government of state unity.

HIS CAMP ALLEGE YOU MASTERMINDED THE LAST MAYHEM IN THE STATE

How could the ACN and I wreck such havoc? How could we have ambushed a governor of a state with all his retinue of security in his convoy? .He lies a lot. Akpabio directed his boys to burn vehicles and properties and blame it on my party. He tried to convince President Goodluck Jonathan to bring in soldiers. He ensured the President’s campaign office was torched. Have you asked what happened to the Armed Personnel Carrier that is always there, where were the police man men and other security. He ensured they were moved so they burnt the place. I was brutalized at Ikot Ekpene he said nothing, they banned me and my wife from campaigning in Ikot Ekpene, he did nothing because they were acting on instruction form him. Akpabio is not a leader. So many people are afraid of him, but I am not, that’s why I am taking him on, and he is uncomfortable. He has intimidated so many through ruthlessness. We don’t care about who is there but when you use the state resources to your advantage, impoverish and intimidate the people, we will say no. We fought Victor Attah because he was sharing the ministries to his brothers and cronies. If Akpabio was doing well, we won’t fight him. Check out the spate of kidnappings and murder in the state since he became governor, very alarming.

DID YOU SEND TEXT MESSAGES TO YOUR SUPPORTERS WHILE IN DETENTION AND SHORTLY AFTER YOU WERE FREED, TO CAUSE MAYHEM?

Never. But he kept lying to the police that I was making calls and sending texts from detention to my supporters to cause mayhem. The Inspector General of Police sent the State Police Commissioner twice to check out the allegation, but found out I had no phone on me…At a point they moved me to the office of a senior officer…but when Abuja got the same complaint they came to see me again, and the police were embarrassed because the officer told the CP I had been with him and that I had no access to a cell phone.

DID YOU WIN THE ELECTION

Yes I did, but Akpabio used state resources, the security, and police, to steal the mandate. Go to Akwa Ibom and find out, Akpabio is not popular at all. There were no voting in the Annang area, ..he has his own fake police…the Returning Officer was just directed to write the results. Our agents were prevented from having access to collation centers; the police were used by him to chase my agents away. We have the videos, and we will do forensic analyses of ballot papers, and result sheets. We are in court already.

YOU HAVE EXPRESSED DISMAY AT HIS ATTACK OF YOUR FAMILY

It is very unfortunate that a governor would descend so low as to be attacking your family while campaigning. He derided my father…when my mother was kidnapped he made sarcastic statements about her, he said I abandoned my child. But the truth is when I was a very young man, a lady came and said I was responsible for her pregnancy; she also named her present husband as potential father of her baby. At that point I said just to be sure, I asked for a DNA test. I am not denying it, but how can you used that to campaign. He had said so many things concerning the morals of his family…that his mother gave birth to his brother six months after the death of his father. But I didn’t campaign with such, because they are his personal issues

WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE JUDGEMENT ON THE OIL WELLS CEEDED TO RIVERS STATE

In the usual Akpabio style he thought he could bribe his way around the problem. He thought he could get the Revenue Mobilization Commission on his side through inducements. But he failed the state.He could have worked with Rivers State to find a way around it. Just like what we did with Cross River State. But he took his decisions based on his narrow selfish intentions.

YOUR PARTY CHAIRMAN PAID A COURTESY VIST TO AKPABIO WHERE HE SAID YOU ACCEPTED DEFEAT

We are aware the chairman had been romancing the state government for a while. When confronted he denied it . But when he went on that visit, we (the party executive, leaders, and elders) met and resolved to suspend him and for him to come and explain himself before a committee, he was given 7 days. The strategy hatched by him and Akpabio was to discourage us from going to court but it failed