The immediate past Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio has described a retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Udom Ekpoudom, as one seeking cheap popularity and unmerited pity.
Akpabio made this known on Sunday, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Jackson Udom, reacting to retired DIG Ekpoudom interview where he allegedly claimed to have won the Senatorial ticket of the APC for the Akwa Ibom North West District and went further to lie against all known facts that former Minister Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, offered him a ministerial position for him to step down from the Senatorial contest.
The statement titled, “Ekpoudom seeking cheap popularity and unmerited pity,” claimed that the retired DIG was never a candidate of the All Progressives Congress for Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District and, as such, there was no reason for him to be asked to step down.
The statement read in part: “Retired DIG of Police, Udom Ekpoudom, in an interview he granted The PUNCH Newspaper today (Sunday), allegedly claimed to have won the senatorial ticket of the APC for the Akwa Ibom North West District and went further to lie against all known facts that former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, offered him a ministerial position for him to step down from the senatorial contest.
“Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have dignified these unfounded claims with any response, but for the interest and information of the unsuspecting members of the public, who could be taken-in by this bare-faced lie, we have to state as follows:
“That Udom Ekpoudom was never the candidate of the APC for the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District and, as such, there wouldn’t have been any reason(s) for him to be asked to step down by Senator Akpabio.
“That the senatorial primary, which he claimed produced him as the candidate, is not recognised by the National Working Committee which is the legally recognised body to organise such an event.
“It is a known fact that senatorial primaries of the party took place across the country on May 28 and not on the May 27, where he purportedly claimed he ‘emerged’ as the ‘candidate.’
“The only recognised primary election for Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District was the one ordered and supervised by the NWC of the party on May 28.”
“That it was Obongemem Ekperikpe Ekpo, who was declared winner of the primary, but because of security infractions which characterised the exercise, it was canceled and a re-conduct of the exercise on June 9 was ordered and conducted, where Senator Godswill Akpabio emerged the winner.
There was no time and infact, there wasn’t any need for anybody, not to talk of Senator Akpabio, to have asked Udom Ekpoudom to stepdown, when it is a known fact that he wasn’t and was never the candidate of the party at any point in time.
We understand the frustration the former Police Chief is currently going through with his phantom senatorial candidacy. The frustration has made him to embark on a pity-party trip for cheap recognition and unmerited sympathy.
We will advise retired DIG Udom Ekpoudom, to focus his energy on blaming those who took him on political wild goose chase, abandoned him to sink deep into political irrelevance, while they seek political succour for negotiation on another platform and not on the former Minister.
