Former Minister of Petroleum Resources and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Akwa Ibom State, Chief Don Etiebet, has said the All Progressives Congress National Working Committee acted in error when it swore in Honourable Stephen Ntukekpo as Chairman of the APC, Akwa-Ibom State chapter.
Chief Etiebet made the declaration at the weekend in Uyo during the declaration for the governorship seat by the immediate past national secretary of the party, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe.
Ntukekpo was sworn in by Senator Adamu despite a subsisting April 7, 2022 directives of the Court of Appeal in Abuja asking all parties in a suit to “maintain the status quo” pending the determination of the case.
Nigerian Tribune checks revealed that Honourable Augustine Ekanem had earlier been accorded recognition and given Certificate of Return by the APC Caretaker/ Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee led by Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni.
Addressing the party faithful at the event held at Ibom Hall in Uyo, the state capital, Chief Etiebet said certain stakeholders of the party, including himself, had since met the Senator Adamu led APC NWC and explained the true position of how Honorable Ekanem emerged at the Congress held in the South-South state.
He appealed to aspirants seeking the party ticket ahead of the next general elections not to be dismayed, expressing confidence that the national secretariat of the party would defer to the directive of the Court of Appeal which has said Ekanem remained the chairman of APC in Akwa-Ibom.
He said: “APC erroneously, mistakenly sworn in an impostor as the chairman. “The national leadership in performing that was deceived, ill-informed and we have taken immediate steps to inform them properly.
“We wrote a letter to the national chairman and said all what he was told were lies and he has taken cognisance of that.
“And our adversaries who are good at telling lies have brought out a court order that his factional chairman should be sworn in. A man who didn’t attend the Congress, couldn’t have been elected.
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“We have told them that the judicial order form the Abuja High court was given out of ignorance because they don’t know the fact of the case.
The Appeal Court has said the status quo before the high court order was given be maintained.
“What is the status quo: that (Augustine Ekanem has been sworn in along with 35 others by the CECPC. So, the new NWC has no locus or power to override the national convention.
“The people who are best in telling lies, whose character is in telling lies, have said the party has withdrawn its appeal in order to dismiss the appeal. The CECPC took the step to appeal the order of the High Court. It didn’t withdraw its appeal.”
Also speaking, Chairman of the Akwa-Ibom Rescue Team, Archbishop Samuel Akpan, said Senator Akpanudoedehe, if given the APC ticket has the capacity to defeat whoever emerges as the candidate of the PDP.
“Today, we have come to honour our own, who completed his assignment in Abuja in grand style. He is about to begin another assignment. We came here to receive him to reassign him; to come and serve as the next governor of Akwa-Ibom State. We are calling you to come and rescue Akwa-Ibom from lawlessness. So, on behalf of the Akwa-Ibom people, I hereby present Akpanudoedehe who never betrayed his former boss, Governor Buni to come and take the challenge and contest the governorship of Akwa-Ibom.”
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