2011 Guber Race

Aspirants, Groups, ors device new strategies against Akpabio

As The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), a body saddled with the responsibility of conducting elections in Nigeria announces January 12, 2011 as possible date for governorship election in Nigeria; groups, individuals, organizations and some governorship aspirants in Akwa Ibom State have arisen in unison to scuttle the second term aspiration of the incumbent governor, Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio.
In an exclusion interaction with Century Newsfront, the State Chairman of Democratic people’s Party (DPP) in the state, Mr Bassey Eshiet said that the arrangement was necessary in view of the fact that 2011 general election is fast approaching. He said that aside the arrangement made at the national Secreariat of his Party for the alliance between the DPP, AC and the ANPP, which was decided in the penultimate month during the National Executive Council of the Party, all the governorship aspirants in the state who are from the possible merging political parties have done over 80 percent arrangement to ensure one aspirant emerge with a formidable team to fight the incumbent. He added that within the arrangement, some PDP members who are aggrieved are part of the negotiation, “some aggrieved members of the PDP have joined us in this arrangement, unfortunately they complained that their Party does not carry them along rather everything rotates within the cabal and if you don’t belong to that cabal, you are out of the system”, he explained.
Answering question on whether or not Sen. James Akpan Udoedehe should contest, he in affirmative said, “Sen. Udoedehe is a bonafide citizen of Akwa Ibom State. He has every right to contest election. If he is the will of the people, why not? He queried. The party boss maintained that there should be a level playing ground for all aspirants.
As part of his strategies, the immediate past National Chairman of Progressive people’s Alliance (PPA), Engr. Larry Esin has formed an alliance with the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) by returing to PDP with over one million, seven hundred supporters across the country with a mind of fighting the incumbent governor in the state out of the scene. According to him, “it is better to fight from within than to stay outside and fight”, he explained.
Engr. Esin, an Harvard University product whose oratory speech is like a wild fire contested in 2007 against the present governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio alongside with almost sixty strong and credible contenders and was rated number three in the PDP nomination according to the result.

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