John James Akpan Udoedehe, the immediate past secretary of the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECCPC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has joined the race to be the governor of Akwa Ibom State come 2023.
The former Minister of FCT, made the declaration at a reception rally organized in his honour by a faction of APC headed by Augustine Ekanem.
“I accept your calls to contest for governor of Akwa Ibom State in 2023. I will not let you down,” he said.
Akpanudoedehe applauded the faithful, leaders and stalwarts of the party who had helped him to climb the political ladder , saying “I am a honest politician and I will never forget any person or individuals who helped me to the top in this politics. We are grateful people.”
He, however, wrapped his agenda around the blue print of the former governor , Victor Attah to include , human capital development, healthcare delivery, science and technology development, industrialisation, education, among others.
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Chairman on the occasion, Don Etiebiet, in his speech accused the national leadership of “mischievously and dubiously swearing in an impostor as the leader of the party in the state.”
The national chairman of the party, Abdulahi Adamu had during the week swore in Stephen Ntukekpo as the chairman of the party in the state, a development which has further polarized the party.
He said, “The national leadership was ill-informed and misinformed and after that we immediately informed them appropriately. The new leader has no power to rescind the decision of the convention.”
Also speaking, National Vice Chairman, South-South, Victor Giadom, called on the faithful to close rank so that the party could win the forthcoming polls .
“We are close to election and it is time to come together and work for the actualization of APC in Akwa Ibom. We cannot continue to fight ourselves,” he said.
For his part, factional chairman, Augustine Ekanem, urged the members to go out and campaign as according to him “we want to take over the state.”
Also speaking,, chairman, Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone, Umana Umana, equally took a swipe at the national leaders who went ahead to inaugurate another factional state executive , warning that the development could lead to a situation where the party would not be able to fill candidates in the general elections.
“The national leadership should save us from this embarrassing situation because it may lead to the position that we don’t have a candidate and these people will not care. We cannot run the party on the basis on criminality.”
Udoedehe is the first APC governorship aspirant to publicly make his intention known. Checks showed that It’s Enang, an aide to president Mohammadu Buhari is also interested but has to declared his aspiration.
