BY SAMUEL ADEBAYO, ABUJA – As hearings in the Akwa Ibom State Governorship and National Assembly elections petitions before the Tribunals are drawing to conclusion, the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is believed to have become uncomfortable with developments at the Tribunals.
Accordingly, the State APC being led by Senator Godswill Akpabio and Obong Nsima Ekere are alleged to plotting to create crisis that would make it uncomfortable for the Trinals to want to continue sitting in Uyo, the state capital.
It was gathered that the plan by the APC in the state is to ensure that once there is crisis, the Tribunal would be forced to relocation to Abuja, the nation’s capital on security grounds.
Dependable sources confided in our correspondent that the plot for the relocation of the venue of the Tribunal sitting is ostensibly fueled by fears arising from the sequence of the petitions the APC filed at both at the Governorship and the National Assembly Tribunal.
It was authoritatively gathered that Obong Nsima Ekere has asked for two adjournments to enable him amend his petition before the Tribunal, a development that is being perceived as an indication of the absence of substance in his petition before the Tribunal.
This is as it has been widely reported that Senator Godswill Akpabio on the other hand closed his case last week without establishing any case just as the witnesses he called ended up contradicting themselves at the Tribunal.
It was gathered that as part of the plot, the duo of Senator Akpabio and Obong Nsima Ekere have mobilized thugs to instigate crisis at the sittings of both the Governorship and National Assembly Tribunals and thereby use the crisis as an alibi to petition the President of the Court of Appeal for a relocation of the Tribunal to Abuja.
It was further gathered that a relocation of the Akwa Ibom Governorship and National Assembly Tribunals is considered imperative by the Akwa Ibom state chapter of the APC to enable them have a leeway to interact and possibly seek ways to compromise the judges which for now has been difficult to achieve in the state owing to the tight security built around the Tribunal judges.
The Akwa Ibom State APC has already written to the President of the Court of Appeal (PCA) seeking the relocation of the Tribunal to Abuja which was vehemently opposed and resisted by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and other major Political Parties in the state, stressing that the APC had no reason(s) whatsoever to seek for the relocation of the Tribunals.
It was however gathered that the crisis being planned by Akpabio and Ekere for tomorrow at the Governorship Election Tribunal, situated at Fulga Street, Uyo, Akwa Ibom state is designed to provide that essential ingredient and justification that were lacking in the first petition to the President of the Court of Appeal.
Efforts made to get the reaction of Senator Godswill Akpabio and Obong Ekere on the matter were unsuccessful.
