Retired Army General to sue Akpabio, others

Major General Edet Akpan, rtd, has threatened to take legal action against former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio and his supporters including Barrister Andem Andem, counsel to Governor Emmanuel Udom, ‘‘for wrongfully accusing him of involvement in electoral fraud.

The General was detained for four days by the State Security Service and later charged to court for allegedly taking electoral materials to his house for thumb printing for the APC governorship candidate during the last election.

But speaking yesterday, after the court cleared him of the charges, the General said he would not allow Akpabio and his cohorts to tarnish his ‘‘hardearned reputation’’.

On why he still wants to go ahead with the case after the court has vindicated him, he said he has a duty to tell the public what happened.

‘‘Now that the court has declared me innocent, I will ask my lawyers to take appropriate action against my two traducers,’’ he said.

General Akpan added: ‘‘I was in my village, Iwok in Nsit-Attai Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State to exercise my right to vote during the governorship and state House of Assembly elections of April 11, 2015. I left my house early to my polling unit for the accreditation. I had barely arrived the venue when some hoodlums invaded the place and carted away all the election materials along with INEC adhoc officials. In my desperation, I decided to go back home to make a report to law enforcement agencies through the phone.

But a few minutes after I arrived my house, a combined team of security personnel came. They witnessed what happened and we agreed that all electoral materials be taken back to the designated polling units. I was also advised by the security team to report to the DSS headquarters at Uyo and take my report in order to ‘exonerate’ myself. I accepted and reported to the DSS HQ to document my statement on what happened in my ward.

The DSS staff interrogated me and took my documented statement. They apologized for delaying me and were just about to see me off when they informed me that I could no longer go home because an order just came from above that I should not be released’’.