A former Nigerian minister and senator from Akwa Ibom State, John
Udoedehe, has narrated how the state’s immediate past governor, Godswill
Akpabio, regularly doled out huge amounts of money as “transport” to
politicians, each time they had a political meeting.
Mr.
Udoedehe, a former Minister of State for FCT, said caucus members of the
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were given at least N3 million each as
“transport”, every night they met to discuss the party’s affairs.
He admitted the governor gave him a “special” sum, way more than the already outrageous N3 million others received.
“Godswill
Akpabio used to give us at least N3million each as transport money
every night we attended caucus meeting in Government House,” he said
during an interview on Planet FM in Uyo on Saturday, November 7. “My own
was special, it was more than N3million.”
The former minister said despite the largesse, he still fell out with Mr. Akpabio, who is now the senate minority leader.
He made the claim to buttress his argument that he could not be bought with money.
Mr. Akpabio could not be immediately reached for comments.
Mr.
Udoedehe, who is now a Board of Trustees member of the ruling All
Progressives Congress, also narrated how a Divisional Police Officer was
held in his community by villagers, for attempting to illegally take
away election materials during the April 11 governorship poll in the
state.
He said the DPO was held for some time at Afaha Offot, Uyo
Local Government Area, and was eventually rescued by a team of mobile
policemen led by the commissioner of police, Akwa Ibom State.
Mr. Udoedehe did not give the name of the officer, but said he was from the “C” Division, Uyo.
Gabriel Achong, now retired, was the commissioner of police in Akwa Ibom State at the time.
A tribunal recently nullified the outcome of the polls in 18 out of 31 Local Government Areas of the state.
“What
I did in my village, I need to tell you this. They came to carry the
ballot boxes in my village. The incident is recorded at the police
headquarters in Akwa Ibom State,” Mr. Udoedehe said.
“The
villagers stopped the DPO ‘C’ Division and other policemen who came to
cart away the (election) materials. In fact, the commissioner of police
mobilised police from everywhere to my village to release the DPO,” Mr.
Udoedehe said in response to a question whether he participated in the
governorship election.
“So, did the election (eventually) hold in your village?” Planet FM went on to ask Mr. Udoedehe who is also a former senator.
“No, we had that incident,” Mr. Udoedehe responded.
“So, did you vote or did you not vote?” the interviewer pressed.
“I said we had an incident in my village,” he responded again.
Mr.
Udoedehe said the incident was another demonstration that he should
have been the governorship candidate of APC in the state – not Umana
Okon Umana.
“What I did in my own ward (during the election),
Umana Okon Umana (the APC governorship candidate) couldn’t do in his own
village. I am giving you fact. My village did not allow the DPO to
leave with the ballot materials. It took the entire mobile police base
to come to my village. They shot guns and arrested the people,” he said.
Mr.
Udoedehe said he deserved to be a governorship candidate of APC, and
not Mr. Umana, because of his contributions to the party within and
outside Akwa Ibom state.
He said APC leaders in Lagos and Abuja
were compromised before the party primary that produced Mr. Umana as the
APC governorship candidate, and that the primary was rigged in Mr.
Umana’s favour.
“The party wanted to do to Timipre Sylva in
Bayelsa State what they did to me here. But the good people of Bayelsa
who supported Sylvia stood against it,” Mr. Udoedehe said.
“They
succeeded against me because of the individuals we planted in the party.
They betrayed me because their interest was money and position. They
abandoned me because I didn’t make them to swear to mbiam (fetish oath).
I trusted them. I loved them. People said I should not put them there,
but I put them there. At the time they were supposed to support me, they
left me without any reason,” said Mr. Udoedehe.
He said he was
in court to challenge the APC primary that Mr. Umana won, and that he
would fight on till the case gets to the Supreme Court.
But APC in Akwa Ibom State denied having any pre-election case in the court against Mr. Umana.
“The
case exists only in the imagination of Udoedehe,” the APC Publicity
Secretary, Akwa Ibom State, Ita Awak, told PREMIUM TIMES.
Mr.
Udoedehe said in the interview that nobody in APC or PDP could use money
to influence him to do anything that was against his conviction.
He
denied the rumour that PDP paid him to go out and speak publicly against
APC because of the fresh political battle prompted by the Akwa Ibom
governorship Election Tribunal judgment.
“People go about telling
lies that I am coming out to speak so that I could be given money, do I
look like somebody you can pay? I have sustained opposition in Akwa
Ibom state on my own, is it now that I’ll collect money from someone?
“When
I had N1billion to pay as deposit for the Nigeria Newsprint
Manufacturing Company in Oku Iboku, how many people in Akwa Ibom state,
apart from government, had money? When they were selling Nigeria,
through privatization, how many of them in Akwa Ibom had money to buy
anything?”
To reiterate his claims that nobody can buy him
with money, the former senator said he was bold enough to leave the then
Akwa Ibom governor, Godswill Akpabio, and the PDP at a time Mr. Akpabio
was doling out money regularly to members of PDP caucus in the state,
of which he said he was part of.
“Godswill Akpabio used to give
us at least N3million each as transport money every night we attended
caucus meeting in Government House. My own was special, it was more than
N3million. But even with this gift, I disagreed with him (Akpabio) and
left him. I left because Akwa Ibom’s interest was paramount to me than
any other thing.
“The main reason I quarreled with Godswill
Akpabio is that the government derailed initially by bringing people
that were not supposed to be in government. Government is so sacred.
There are people that are not supposed to be in government. If you allow
them in, then that sacredness would be broken,” Mr. Udoedehe said.
Mr.
Udoedehe accused Mr. Akpabio, who is now senate minority leader, of
misusing state funds and causing poverty in Akwa Ibom state.
“Development
goes beyond infrastructure,” he said. “People in Uyo are now selling
off their properties, including their fathers’ graves. It shows the
level of poverty here.”
