Again, stakeholders reject Akpabio as APC leader in A’ibom

SOME stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress ( APC) in Akwa Ibom have, again, rejected Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio as leader of the state chapter.

A group led by former military administrator of Rivers and Ogun states, Group Captain Sam Ewang ( rtd.), had endorsed Akpabio as the APC leader in the state last month.

But in a second enlarged stakeholders meeting at the weekend, stakeholders rejected the Ewang group’s decision to name Akpabio party leader in the state.

National Caretaker Secretary of the APC, John Akpanuodehe, Managing Director of the Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone Authority, Obong Umana Okon Umana, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Ita Enang, Sole Administrator of the Niger Delta Development Commission ( NDDC, Efiong Akwa and Ewang, among others attended the meeting. Akpabio, who was absent at the meeting, sent a letter of apology, but failed to give details of why he failed to attend.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, they said: “That the stakeholders endorse the decision of the State Executive Committee ( SEC) to declare the unilateral proclamation and announcement of Akpabio, as leader in violation of the party’s constitution in the illegal stakeholders meeting of March 28, 2021 a nullity. “That the party reminds all members and the public that the state chairman ( or caretaker chairman as applicable here) remains chairman of the state caucus as provided in Article 12: 9 Subsection ( i) of the party constitution 2014 ( as Amended) and is the party leader in the State until further notice,” the communiqué reads.