Date Published: 05/15/09

Akpabio's personal aides are 80% Ibibio– Ibibio Elite Group

- By Sunday Antai, Abuja. 15.05.09

More than 80% (eighty percent) of all of Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio’s Special and Personal Assistants, hail from the Ibibio ethnic stock, even as they also hold key positions in the Akpabio government, an Ibibio elite group, Utuenikang Ibibio, speaking for the Ibibios, has disclosed.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja, at a courtesy call on the governor, its National Chairman, Capt. Iniobong Ekong, declared, “We need not talk about your PA’s and SA’s, where over 80% is occupied by Ibibio sons and daughters….The boards and parastatals are dominated by our sons and daughters. Your Excellency you have done us well as a people, and we must place it on record that we are indeed grateful.”

Ekong said that his association was born out of “a burning desire to change he psyche of our people from being generally pessimistic and negative in their approach to life to a positive mindset” so as to be able to make choices that would reshape their common destiny in a positive way.”

He said that his group is made up of positive and honest Ibibio sons and daughters with eyes on industry rather than pecuniary benefits, and has received the endorsement of the pan-Ibibio association, Akwa Esop Imaisong Ibibio and the two umbrella bodies of traditional rulers, Ifim Ibom Ibibio and Council of Ibibio Traditional Rulers.

As a mark of solidarity and support for Governor Akpabio, therefore, the group said it has endorsed him as “the sole candidate for the 2011 gubernatorial elections in Akwa Ibom State”, declaring “the only way we can remain relevant and do justice to all you have infused in us is to see you return unconditionally to the Lodge you are constructing in Uyo come 2011.”

To show its commitment to its chosen cause, they said, “Unequivocally, Utuenikang Ibibio will purchase the forms, gather one million signatories of Akwa Ibom people that will see you have the easiest re-election ever in the history of our State.”

Ekong disclosed that his group has donated 150,000 exercise books, valued at about N12m, to the State Ministry of Education for distribution to all primary and secondary schools in the State, in support of the state government’s free and compulsory education programme.

The group, its leader further said, has trained more than 60 indigenes of the State in computer literacy, while another 40 are still undergoing training in the same discipline, in addition to regular visits to orphanages, to bring succour to the under-privileged inmates there.

The governor thanked the group for a visit he said was a “pleasant surprise”, and advised them to stay united in the interest of the State.

The group decorated the governor with their uniform and declared him not just an “Utuenikang” (light) for the Ibibios, but also for the whole State.