... Tension mounts in APC
Senator Godswill Akpabio has been fingered in an alleged plot to ensure that the Governorship Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for the upcoming March 11, 2023, Elections, Mr Akan Udofia is disqualified from participation in the Governorship Poll.
An insider who pleaded anonymity confided in our reporter who is following developments and political intrigues in the Akwa Ibom State chapter of APC that, Senator Akpabio who won his election to represent Akwa Ibom Northwest Senatorial District on the earlier February 25, polls has restrategised his overall schemes to emerge the sole strongman of APC in the State.
Akpabio who was responsible for imposing Akan Udofia on the APC as Governorship Candidate is alleged to be reconsidering his plans especially because the emergence of Udofia had torn the Party in the State apart.
Many top guns of the party who were disgruntled by the manner in which Akan Udofia emerged had either quit the party to join mainly the PDP while some we t to court to challenge the outcome including Senator Ita Enang, erstwhile Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Niger Delta Affairs who has dragged the case on to the Supreme Court with judgement slated for March 7, 2023.
It will be recalled that Senator Akpabio had cried out that top APC Chieftains in the State were working against the interest of the party and not supporting her candidates. Pundits said he was referring to the likes of Obong Umana Okon Umana, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, former Niger Delta Development
Commission Managing Director, Obong Nsima Ekere and former Petroleum Minister among others.
However, after surviving the National Assembly polls to emerge Senator, Akpabio is said to be returning to the drawing table and has changed his mind about supporting Akan Udofia who he earlier recruited to snatch the APC Governorship ticket.
The source revealed to our reporter that, Senator Akpabio paid a secret visit to the embattled Young Progressives Party, YPP, governorship candidate, Senator Bassey Albert who was recently convicted for corruption and also sacked from the Senate by the Court's, at his ididep, Ibiono Ibom country home on Thursday, March 23, 2023 in the thick of the night.
Our source disclosed that the midnight closed meeting which lasted almost e hours was to discuss collaboration between the APC and YPP to confront the more dominant PDP which controls the State. Akpabio is said to prefer Akan Udofia steps down for Senator Bassey Albert preferring that APC should not field any Governorship candidate.
The source says his new plot to ensure that Akan Udofia is disqualified is because he has refused to stand down, while demanding that, Senator Albert whose candidacy is defective and conflicted following his conviction should rather step down for him.
Akpabio who is allegedly enraged by Akan Udofia's effrontery to stand his ground is said to be working behind the scenes to use the Supreme Court to remove him.
The Supreme Court of Nigeria has fixed March 7, 2023 for judgment on the appeal filed by Senator Ita Enang against the judgement of the Court of Appeal which set aside the judgement of the Federal High Court, Uyo that earlier disqualified Akan Udofia as the Governorship Candidate of the APC holding that he was not a member of the party when he won the nomination during the disputed primaries.
Udofia who filed the cross appeal by seeks to be recognized as a member of the All Progressives Congress. It is however not clear how Senator Akpabio intends to influence or cause Akan Udofia's disqualification through a nullification of the flawed primaries of the APC by the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, tension is mounting in the APC in Akwa Ibom State over the last gap conspiracy theories that is currently rocking the party rank and file as nobody knows the workings in the hearts of the party gladiators.
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