2011: Bloodbath Imminent in Akwa Ibom

Akanimo Sampson

2011: Bloodbath Imminent in AKWA IBOM, Group Warns

JOURNALISTS for Niger Delta (JODEL), a media group concern with the affairs of Nigeria's oil and gas region, has warned that the political situation in Akwa Ibom State vis-a-vis the approaching 2011 polls is likely to result in a terrible bloodbath if the authorities fail to apply the breaks.

JODEL said in an on-line statement on Thursday that it was high time the Federal Government and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) began to call those they described as ''desperate politicians'' to order.

Spkesperson for the group, Mr. Ofonime Etukudo, claimed that the spate of political repression was a matter of concern for them. ''We fear that the current political order in Akwa Ibom is not democratic. There is a reign of terror from all sides''.

Continuing, the group said, ''there has been questionable assassinations, alleged armed robbery attacks, murders even in churches, and politically-instigated arrests of perceived opponents and foes that are fuelling tensions in the state''.

AkanimoReports correspondent reports that JODEL's stance is informed by last Tuesday massive arrest of protesters by the police in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital, for allegedly carrying out a peaceful demonstration along major streets in the metropolis against the detention of former minister and governorship aspirant in the state, John James Akpan-Udoedeghe.

Police Commissioner, Mr. Walter Rugbere who confirmed the arrest to our correspondent said, they were 30 and that, he ordered for their arrest because the protest was unlawful. But, some eye-witnesses say about 100 protesters were arrested by the police.

The police boss is claiming that some groups of youths alleged to be supporters of Akpan-Udoedeghe, a governorship aspirant in the state were trying to make trouble in the metropolis when he ordered his men to stop them.

Rugbere is also saying that the protesters did not apply for police clearance before they staged the procession and he had to dislodge them.

“Generally speaking, I have said severally that if anybody wants to protest anything, he should seek police approval as a rational thing to do

“If anybody is saying Governor Akpabio is a killer...the law on lawful assembly still stands.

“They refused to be dislodge when we told them to go instead, they all ran to converged somewhere at the campaign office of the aspirant and we went there to make some arrest and would be charge to court tomorrow”, Rugbere said.

Campaign Manager for Akpan-Udoedeghe, Mr. Thomas Akpan, a Second Republic legislator in the old Cross River State (1878-1983) told AkanimoReports that, the police denied the youths approval for the peaceful protest.

He said, the youths protested because the ex-minister was arrested for a crime he did not commit adding that, he was not associated with the alleged murder of former South-South Secretary of the PDP chieftain, late Paul Inyang.

“For him to be arrested after the Police Inspector-General’s visit to the state, Mr. Ogbonna Onovo is why we are protesting.

“We will go to court to get the people free”, he declared noting also that, the late Inyang was never governor Akpabio’s supporter.

He said, the deceased was to accompany former governor Mr. Victor Attah to Akpan-Udoedeghe’s campaign office in the metropolis the following Monday for a meeting to declare his support for a positive change when he was murdered the eventful Sunday maintaining that, the late PDP chieftain who later regretted supporting governor Akpabio since the people complained, he did not run a good and open government.

At the Positive Change campaign office along Udotung Ubo within the state capital, there were hordes of armed policemen barricading people from gaining access into the area.

Hundreds of motor-cycles seized from some of the supporters were also parked at the frontage.

Before his current ordeal, Akpan-Udoedeghe has been lamenting the gruesome murder of the PDP stalwart which he described as ''shocking to the people of Akwa Ibom''.

Inyang’s murder comes months after gunmen stormed the Qua Iboe Church in Iwok Village, Nsit Atai Local government Area and kidnapped former Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Maj. Gen. Edet Akpan (Retired) after shooting to death a number of his security aides.

“While wholeheartedly condemning this ignoble act, I join millions of grieving Akwa Ibomites in commiserating with the family of the deceased. This incident has further highlighted the unacceptably elevated level of insecurity in our beloved ‘ Land of Promise ’. Now, the question on every Akwa Ibomite’s lips is: Who is next?

“To rub salt to injury, the state government unashamedly declared the ‘opposition’ guilty of the brutal killing of Chief Paul Inyang, minutes after the dastardly act was committed, even before the police had commenced investigation.

“This falls perfectly in tandem with the issues raised in my letter to the National Security Adviser and the law enforcement agencies, stressing the fact that the level of insecurity in Akwa Ibom State has become unbearable.

“But that is to be expected in a state where the governor has acquired helicopters and kept them at his beck and call while the entire State Police Command has no single one to fight crime in the State; a government in which the Governor’s mushroom support groups numbering over 2000 each have brand new buses while one can hardly point to a single Divisional Police Officer (DPO) having a functional vehicle; a government that has failed woefully to discharge its responsibility of caring for the lives and property of its people but rather plays politics with lives of the Akwa Ibom people; a government that has never brought any criminal to book despite uncountable cases of kidnapping and murder, and a government that has refused to sign the Death Penalty that would stem kidnapping in the State.

“For the records, Chief Paul Inyang was a loyal PDP member and, in recognition of this fact, the immediate-past Governor of the State, Obong Victor Attah, nominated him for the position of Zonal Secretary of the PDP (South-South Zone), a position he held till 2007. This therefore puts a lie to claims by the government that the deceased was a ‘strong supporter’ of the current administration.

“By laying the blame for Inyang’s murder on the ‘opposition’ even ahead of police investigation, the state government is employing scare tactics and wants to be the judge in its own case. This tends to direct the focus away from the state government but this attempt to fool Nigerians has failed woefully as the public has become wiser with the antics of the current administration in the state.

“The choice of the ‘opposition’ as the ‘fall guy’ is not strange when one recalls Governor Akpabio’s injunctions to a group known as Coalition of PDP Aborigenes as well-documented in the Friday, May 14 2010 edition of Daily Independent. In the said publication, Governor Akpabio was quoted as follows: “You must rise up with anger and crush anybody who wants to bring down the government. You must crush any opposition against this government with fire. You must show anger because we are developing our state and nobody should stand against the development of the state”.

“For the umpteenth time, I call on the National Security Adviser, the Inspector General of Police, the Director General of the State Security Services, and all law enforcement agencies to thoroughly investigate the murder of Chief Paul Inyang as well as several other unresolved cases, especially that involving one Nathaniel Uyo and bring the perpetrators of these atrocities to justice.

“On our part, we disassociate ourselves from thuggery, murder or any such vice and remind the good people of Akwa Ibom State that the power to change the current incompetent administration, come 2011, is in their hands”, the statement added. ENDS

ENDS

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