Akwa Ibom: PDP should show restraint, says Eyiboh

All Progressives Congress, APC chieftain, Eseme Eyiboh has called on the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Akwa Ibom State not to further stoke the tension in the state through what he yesterday cited as the unnecessary tension in the state legislature.

At a press conference in Lagos yesterday, Eyiboh, a former member of the House of Representatives lamented the recourse to lawlessness in the state House of Assembly saying that the expulsion of five members of the House by the PDP leadership was a violation of existing laws. He affirmed that only nine members sat in the House of 26 members to effect the expulsion of the five APC members.

He thus appealed to Governor Udom Emmanuel and the PDP leadership in the state not to further stoke crisis in the state even as he claimed that the governor had not done enough to deserve a second term.

“Last year, the only APC member in the State House of Assembly defected to the PDP and nothing happened and no seat was declared vacant. But just recently, five members of the PDP defected to the APC and attempt was made to declare their seats vacant,” Eyiboh alleged as he decried what he said was the double standard on the path of the state legislature.

According to him the declaration of the seats of the five legislators was done against procedure as he said that only nine members of the House sat on a Monday which he said was not a normal sitting day. He further said that they sat without the mace and other needed legislative gears.

“When the nine members did their own, the five APC members had to sit on their own to carry out their own expulsions,” he said.

Affirming what he described as the superiority of the APC in the state, he said that Akwa Ibom which was once 100% PDP has now tilted towards the APC.

He put the nation on notice that what he promised would be the victory of the APC in the state should not be ascribed to the use of the APC’s federal might.

“Akwa Ibom State was before 100% PDP before now but if you have seen from the defections and all the things that have happened since, things have since changed. They are saying it is federal might, but the world should be put on notice that it is not federal might,” the former legislator said.

Affirming that a second term is not a done deal for the governor, he said:

“Second term is not a constitutional right, it is a privilege. There are legacies other governors have put on ground but as I speak to you same cannot be said for our governor.”

Noting spurt of violence in some sections of the state particularly in Etim Ekpo, he said:

“We want to appeal to the PDP in the state, want to appeal to the governor that until recently when the present government came in that the state used to be at peace.”

Concluding, he said:

“We don’t want PDP in the state and they are going. I expect the PDP to submit to the will of the people,” he said.