The Eket Federal Constituency Elders’ Forum, Akwa Ibom State, has condemned the recent nullification of the Akwa Ibom State governorship election by the Federal Court of Court sitting in Abuja.

Speaking on behalf of the people of Eket Federal Constituency, the forum at a press briefing held in Eket also condemned the removal of Bassey Dan Abia as the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) even as his tenure had not elapsed.

A spokesman for the forum, Brigadier-General Anthony Etukudo (rtd), said the people of the constituency totally rejected the annulment of the state governorship election by the appeal court where one of their own, Mr. Udom Emmanuel of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was declared winner.

Emmanuel and Abia are from the same Eket Federal Constituency of the Eket Senatorial District of the state.

Etukudo said the constituency would resist any attempt by their brothers in Uyo Senatorial District to rubbish the election that produced Emmanuel, stressing that the peaceful and law abiding posture of the Eket senatorial district should not be taken for granted.

His words: “We have watched with dismay but not helpless, how our brothers whom we had supported from the other senatorial districts to take their shots at the governorship seat, resorted to grandstanding thinking that justice and equity must be sacrifice now to the detriment of Eket senatorial district.

“We state forcefully for emphasis that this turn is for our senatorial district and we will swim but not sink in our quest for justice with Emmanuel. We will resist every attempt to steal through the backdoor our God-given mandate.

“We asked our Governor, Emmanuel, to be focused in his deliberate and well thought out plans of infrastructural development and aggressive industrialisation programmes that have dotted the landscape of the state in just six months.”

Also wondering the unceremonious removal of the NDDC managing director, the elders of the Eket federal constituency warned that their simplicity should not be taken for cowardice.

Said Etukudo: “Again, we condemn in strong terms this barefaced slap on us, as the largest producer of crude oil in Nigeria and having waited patiently as a state to take our turn in accordance with the statue of the NDDC Act, we believe justice demands that should sack be warranted, then Abia should have been replaced by another indigene of the state.

“It amounts to complete illegality, bringing a politician to replace the head of a four-year statutory board which was barely two-year old. Knowing President Muhammadu Buhari of who he is, we are confident that he will not allow this injustice to our state to prevail.”

•Adapted from a ThisDay report.

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