2023: Akan Okon is in court to save PDP from shame – DEWA
Dennis Udoma Uyo
Democracy Watch Alliance, DEWA, Akwa Ibom chapter has warned against the mindless attacks and character assasination laced with blackmails against Mr. Akan Okon, a contender of the governorship primary of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP in Akwa lbom held on 25 May, 2022.
It is recalled that, Mr. Akan Okon who was a governorship aspirant under PDP became second runner-up, after instituted a case of forgery of certificates against Pst. Umo Bassey Eno, who was allegedly declared winner by Philips Shuaibu’s led PDP governorship primary in Akwa Ibom State.
Among other credentials Mr. Okon faulted included Umo Eno’s age and his Permanent Voter’s Card, PVC as forged, thereby approaching the Federal High Court, Uyo, in a suit number: FHC/UY/CS/110/2022, seeking the court presided over by Agatha Okeke, to declare him the eventual winner, in line with the Electoral Act 2022 and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) respectively.
Worried by series of attacks at Okon’s camp by Umo Eno’s supporters, DEWA in it’s reaction described the attacks as unnecessary and uncalled for.
The National Coordinator of DEWA, Prince Sam Akwaowo during a press parly in Uyo on Thursday said, the attacks were unwarranted, given the fact that, “the action of Akan Okon, is not a fight against any individual, but a struggle to save the the ruling PDP in the state.”
Comrade Akwaowo, warned against unnecessary overheating of the polity going into the crucial elections’ year and urged the political jobbers, especially from government quarters to “stop the campaigns of mudslinging and sheathe your sword while waiting for the final determination of the case on November 28.”
According to him, “Akan Okon, is a man of peace seeking to save Akwa Ibom that had been under the PDP administration since the return of democracy in 1999 from being taken over by the opposition as it happened in Bayelsa state.
“He is not Fighting governor Udom Emmanuel, because both of them had been close friends and confidant for over 40 years, and had also been working with Umo Eno, in the State Executive Council, SEC for couple of years.
“It is on record that Mr Okon worked assiduously to ensure his good friend, the governor remain on his seat as the fourth civilian Governor of the state, when it appeared in 2015, that he was on his way out after the tribunal had cancelled elections in 18, out of the 31 Local Government Areas, and the verdict affirmed by the Appeal Court.
“So, it is for the Court to determine whether Umo Eno’s alleged cocktail of frauds and the baggages of lies surrounding his O’ Level Certificates, age and PVC could easily be waved away by mere technicalities and not on merit.”, he stressed and urged those trying to make a big capital out of the case to sustain the prevailing peace.
“It is noteworthy that Mr. Okon and those in his camp, as a patriotic citizens of the state, has continued to maintain peace in the face of these unwarranted provocation in his struggle to salvage the state from the embarrassment of being taken over by opposition, and we believe now is the time for lovers of the PDP and the state to bury sentiments and be part of the rescue mission “, the group warned.
