Akpabio not involved in petition against former Gov Udom Emmanuel – Ex-senator

A former presidential aide on National Assembly Matters, Ita Enang, said the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has no hand in the petition against former Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State.

A group, Network Against Corruption and Trafficking, recently petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, alleging Mr Emmanuel’s misappropriation of funds.

The group in the petition asked the anti-graft agency to investigate former Governor Emmanuel over corrupt practices while serving as governor of the oil-rich South-south state from 2015 to 2023.

The petition has triggered mixed reactions within the state, with many accusing Mr Akpabio of sponsoring it.

Mr Akpabio, a former governor of the state, perfected the emergence of Mr Emmanuel as his successor in 2015 but later parted ways with the latter and defected to the All Progressives Congress.

Respond to petition, don’t divert attention – Enang

Although Mr Akpabio has yet to comment on the matter, Mr Enang, a former senator, said in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday that the Senate President was not involved in the petition.

He said Mr Emmanuel was seeking to divert attention by linking the Senate President with the petition and urged the former governor to respond to the petition.

“From all indications, there is nothing to link the Senate President or His Office and associates with the alleged petition.

“The concentration should be on preparation to answer to the veracity or otherwise of the issues stated in the purported petition, admitting or denying the facts therein alleged and not seeking to divert attention by these fruitless attempts.”

Mr Enang reminded the people of the state how he had, through appearances on different radio and television programmes in the state, particularly “Team Nigeria” between 2016 and 2024, drawing people’s attention to “all and more issues raised in the alleged petition.”

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“For the referenced eight years plus of advocacy in the Akwa Ibom wilderness, I was taken to court on whether Mr Emmanuel’s administration was the worst government in Nigeria, for which we are at the Court of Appeal, Abuja. So the issue is not the persons behind the petition but whether there are questions to answer on tenure,” he said.

While canvassing the support of the people of the state for the president of the Senate, Mr Enang urged Mr Akpabio to focus on delivering President Bola Tinubu’s blueprint and ignore “trivialities from low-minded new saints.”