The All Progressives Congress,
APC, and the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, in Akwa Ibom State on Tuesday
traded words over a fake WhatsApp group purportedly created to misinform the
public about the activities of APC and to portray top officials of the party in
bad light.
The APC also accused the PDP-led
state government of stealing and attempting to implement one of the agenda in
the manifesto of its governorship candidate, Nsima Ekere.
State chairman of the APC, Ini
Okopido, in a press conference on Tuesday at the party’s secretariat in Uyo,
alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party had created a fake APC Account where
key APC leaders were framed to have engaged in dubious and criminal
conversations just to mislead the Akwa Ibom people.
Okopido said that APC would not
have dignified such act with a response but since it was falsehood bordering on
criminality and intellectual theft, the party would not keep quiet.
He said, “I have called you here
today to bring to your urgent attention a number of unwholesome activities
reportedly carried out by the campaign organization of Governor Udom Gabriel
Emmanuel, Divine Mandate. For a long time, the Akwa Ibom State Chapter of the
All Progressives Congress, APC, has ignored a lot of the shenanigans of the
Peoples Democratic Party in the state. But when it borders on criminality,
assumption of the intellectual property of the APC and the dubious
implementation of the manifesto of our candidate for the forthcoming
gubernatorial elections, Obong Nsima Ekere, then we feel compelled to respond
as a party.
“A few days ago, our attention
was drawn to the screenshot of a WhatsApp group, ‘Udom Till 2023,’ where Ini
Ememobong, the state Publicity Secretary of the PDP, instructed his people to
create a fake APC Account, using key leaders of our party, the APC, to create a
fake, dubious and criminal conversation, purporting our party leaders to be
engaged in criminal activity.
“Indeed, we have also witnessed
the growing spate of blackmails and character assassination which has become a
stock-in-trade among the PDP media handlers. We have in our possession another
screenshot of this fake WhatsApp group chat, ostensibly signed by PDP agents,
but purporting same to have been a conversation between two APC elders, where
they claimed that APC gave NANS president and NANS N600,000 to protest against
the state government. This is pure criminality.”
On the alleged theft of
manifesto. Okopido said, “Few weeks ago we unveiled our manifesto. It was well
received by all and sundry, because it contains detailed prescriptions on how
APC is going to heal our land and bring prosperity. The governorship candidate
of All Progressives Congress, APC, Obong Nsima Ekere, had in his speech at the
presentation of the manifesto, amongst others declared that he would ensure the
immediate reactivation of the Akwa Palm Industries as one of his priorities.
“He also stated that, within the
first one hundred days in office as Governor, he would give life to the
plantation to immediately throw up thousands of direct and indirect jobs. The
place, he said, was a low hanging job creation fruit that would set the tone
for massive employment and sustained industrial empowerment of the state.
“Today, what do we have? Governor
Udom has rushed to inaugurate a taskforce for the reactivation of that palm
project. He gathered students, which he promised N31 million, to march in Uyo
for him, promising to start paying bursary after all. We all know how that so
called solidarity rally dissolved into fiasco, leading to mayhem, vandalism,
injuries and breakdown in law and order. If officers and men of the Nigerian
Police Force had not intervened to bring peace, we don’t know what would have
happened to Uyo and it’s residents.”
He continued, “Only last week,
our attention was drawn to the fact that the PDP has also started using the
slogan, coined and authored by First Lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, Future Assured,
as their campaign slogan. While I will not speak on behalf of the First Lady,
because she has very qualified assistants, including lawyers, I believe it is
important to investigate the rightly owner of the copyright of “Future
Assured.”
However in a swift reaction, the
Akwa Ibom publicity secretary of PDP, Barr. Ini Ememobong described the
allegations by the APC chairman as an act of “descending to worse lower levels
and a beer parlour conversation”.
Ememobong pointed out that the
WhatsApp chats referred to by Ini Okopido were fake and absolutely useless,
saying that even a cursory look at the said WhatsApp ‘leak’ will reveal
numerous convincing reasons why no reasonable or intelligent person should take
the material seriously.
According to him, “Clearly, Ini
Okopido has shown the world that he is neither reasonable nor intelligent and
this is most pitiable.
“No such WhatsApp group exists
(to our knowledge) and never has such imaginary instructions been issued by the
State Publicity Secretary. Akwa Ibom people do not need any instigation to
reject the APC. When they see what their evil political coven has turned our
country into, in addition to the anti-people policies propagated by a party
which values the life of cows above human lives.
“The future assured combo is an
English construction available in the lexicon for use by all, except where it
has been limited by copyright assignment. There is no evidence of such
copyright engagement as we speak. However, it must be stated that while the
First Lady’s future assured programme is an organization, ours is a commitment
and a focus to assure the future of every Akwa Ibom child. We are therefore not
in breach of any law, except that promulgated by Ini Okopido and his
intellectual misfits.
“On the issue of the reactivation
of Akwa palm industries, it is most unfortunate for Ini Okopido to allege that
the setting up of the task force for the reactivation of the failed company was
an execution of the manifesto of his party’s Governorship candidate. The drive
has been the fulcrum of the current administration, which has been religiously
pursued since her inception, using a two pronged approach of reactivation of
failed industrial concerns and establishment of new industries. In the early
days of his administration, the Governor reactivated Peacock paints and has
gone on to attract countless industries to the state. This disposition is aptly
captured in the five point agenda of the Governor, as published in 2014.
“We challenge Ini Okopido to a
debate on governance issues and his party’s proposed solution. Let us engage in
an intellectually enriching exercise, instead of this incongruent spasms, which
has become Mr. Okopido’s hobby.”
Ememobong also expressed
disaffection with the APC Chairman for describing Governor Emmanuel as
“clueless”.
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