APC will take over Akwa Ibom in 2027 – Ex-presidential aide

Former presidential aide on National Assembly Matters and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ita Enang, said the party will take over governorship from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in Akwa Ibom State in 2027.

Mr Enang, a former senator, stated this in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES on 21 January.

The former senator was originally a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a platform he served for three terms as a member of the House of Representatives and one term in the Senate before defecting to Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mr Enang was reacting to the Akwa Ibom PDP’s declaration of Governor Umo Eno as the party’s sole candidate ahead of the 2027 governorship election in the state.

“It is an internal affair of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state that they can adopt him. It is not a thing to worry about, but it is domestic to PDP. They (PDP) can decide who they want.

“Is it Anyanwu as the secretary or the other person from Enugu State that will sign the nomination form, and which National Working Committee are they under,” he said, making jest of the current crisis in Nigeria’s main opposition party, where Sunday Ude-Okoye and Samuel Anyanwu are claiming to be secretary of the party.

“Whatever the PDP does as an internal affair does not concern us. And the PDP has always been known to have a constricted democratic space. They have never allowed democracy to thrive,” he said.

The former senator said the APC is intact in Akwa Ibom and has no such problem.

‘I stand on my party’

Akwa Ibom is a traditional PDP state, a platform that has produced four elected governors since the Fourth Republic.

Since his inauguration in May 2023, the present governor of Akwa Ibom, Mr Eno, has embraced the opposition party in the state, particularly the APC. He attends events organised by the APC leaders in the state, including that of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo.

The cordial relationship between Mr Eno and members of the main opposition party in Akwa Ibom has caused many to question the existence of the APC in the state, with some people saying the governor has broken the boundary between the two main parties in the state, implying that the APC does not exist in the oil-rich state.

But Mr Enang thinks otherwise.

“APC is very vibrant in the state. The fact is, we at the federal level, you know the President of the Senate and President Bola Tinubu have to show cordiality to every governor but that does not mean we are one party. We contested elections, filed our candidates and they filed their candidates,” the former senator said.

Asked if the APC stands a chance to win the 2027 election, being that the party struggled to win the third largest number of votes in the 2023 governorship election, the former senator attributed the party’s performance in the election to the dispute in determining who was the party’s governorship candidate between himself and Akan Udofia, stressing “in the end, APC had no candidate.”

“So if we had no candidate and still made the third position, don’t you think we are on the ground?”

“We don’t have to disclose our strategies for now. I respect Mr Eno as the governor, but when it comes to political party affairs, I stand on my party, and he stands on his party,” he said.