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| Don Etiebet |
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PRESS RELEASE BY CHIEF DON OBOT ETIEBET, CON ON THE MURDER OF RT. HON. OKON JOSEPH UWAH
The news of the death of Hon. Okon Uwah, Former Deputy Speaker of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly and the APC candidate for the Ukanafun State Constituency of Akwa Ibom State, hit me like a thunder bolt, rendering me in great shock. This is particularly painful because I talked with him at about 1pm from Abuja on the fateful day of Wednesday March 18, 2015 before he was gruesomely murdered at about 6pm by some PDP thugs in Ward 3 of Ukanafun Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
Words cannot express the feeling, the sadness and the anger in me for this dastardly act of murdering this very harmless, always playful, jovial and smiling gentleman in his prime age of 51 years, who had been a very successful banker, Chairman of Ukanafun Local Government Council, Deputy Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly and a leading political light in the State.
May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace and God, please give the family, his friends and associates, including my humble self the grace to bear this very irreparable loss with fortitude.
I take this opportunity to appeal very heartily to the Ukanafun/Afaha people to continue to show restrain and calm while allowing the police to do their work. I am glad to hear that the police moved in immediately on Wednesday night to the area to keep peace and have arrested some of the alleged murderers.
The tears that flowed since the night of Wednesday 18, 2015, the anguish and grief that have enveloped us and even the curses on the perpetrators, their accomplices and sponsors directly or indirectly cannot bring our brother, friend, associate back to life, but Hon. Okon Uwah must remain alive in our hearts, in our deeds and in the political sphere of Ukanafun Local Government Area and Akwa Ibom State in general, for he died in his quest to liberate his people from political bondage and servitude and from the politics of fraternities so that we can be free to voice our opinions and preferences freely on those to lead us as our political leaders and representatives in a democratic way.
There is no gain saying whatsoever that the murder of Hon. Okon Uwah was political and politically motivated, premeditatedly planned and consciously executed to silence what they take as an opposition candidate who should not be allowed to campaign in their area because the area belongs to PDP candidates. Such instances have occurred before in other Local Government Areas in the State. That is sickening, that is not democracy, that is insane and a sign of consummate desperation as electoral defeats stare at their faces glaringly in the forthcoming general elections.
The murder of Hon. Okon Uwah is a direct result of what was happening in the State that I had warned against seriously and openly in the past when the powers that be caused their “Youths” and faceless government officials to abuse and threaten me all over the place.
Last year I had talked of political brigandry in Akwa Ibom State when –
(i) Chief (Engr) Albert Ukpana was hacked to death in his house at Abak and his only alleged trespass was that he wanted the Abak-5 zone of Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District to produce the next Senator of the District. Naturally everybody, including the Governor acknowledges that it is the turn of Abak Federal Constituency to produce the Senator of the District rather the governor from Ikot Ekpene Federal Constituency has turned around to usurp it for himself, telling the rightful people to keep off. That has produced a lot of political tension and rivalries in the Abak-5 zone in which Ukanafun Local Government Area belongs.
(ii) Senator Mrs. Helen Esuene was attacked in Essien Udim LGA, the home LGA of the Governor because she was allegedly told that no other gubernatorial aspirant should campaign there except the one sponsored by the Governor.
(iii) Hon. Sunny Udom the former Chairman of the State property investment company was to be assassinated when hired assassins attacked his office and missed him because he had become the Director General of Umana Okon Umana gubernatorial campaign organization. Obong Umana Okon Umana was the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) whom the Governor had introduced to many including my humble self as his successor in waiting, only to turnaround in the last hour to dump him, which action has angered a lot of people in the State.
(iv) And many other unsolved, allegedly politically motivated killings in the State since the administration of HE Godswill Obot Akpabio, CON.
Almost everybody in this State would agree with me that there was no opposition to PDP in Akwa Ibom State before November 1st, 2014 Ward Congresses when the Governor and family members took steps to impose unpopular and their selected candidates for all the PDP positions in the State to the chagrin of all. So when the popular and acceptable aspirants to the people were denied the PDP nominations, they found their ways to other Parties, particularly the All Progressives Congress (APC). Now with ten days to go for the Presidential and National Assembly Elections on the 28th of March, the APC is the Party to beat in the State. The PDP is therefore employing these tactics to implement what HE Governor Godswill Akpabio said last year that any candidate who did not pass through him would “die”, just as Hon. Emmanuel Ukoete, the current House of Representatives Member for Ukanafun/Oruk Anam Federal Constituency said at the Oruk Anam PDP Rally on the 24th of January 2015 in the presence of the Governor, that anybody who would not vote for PDP would have his/her eyes plucked out. And on the 18th of March 2015, in Nkek Village of Ward 3 in Ukanafun Local Government Area, Hon Okon Uwah did not only have his eyes plucked out but was killed in broad day light in his in-laws house while doing house-to-house campaign with the House of Representatives APC candidate for Ukanafun/Oruk Anam Federal Constituency, Deacon Eshiet Offiong.
I am from Ukanafun/Oruk Anam Federal Constituency. I am ashamed and afraid because I have lost two prominent politicians from the constituency, murdered in cold blood within this campaign season. As a Founding Father of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a permanent member of its Board of Trustees, I am very disappointed that I am living under serious threat to my life and well being because I have dared to defer with the State Governor on his anti-democratic ways of running the Party in the State.
I am also ashamed, devastated and dumbfounded that the Party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which we formed as a Party of decent, civilized and God fearing People to bring purposeful governance to the people has now been turned into a Party of murderers and assassins in the State for the selfish and aggrandized utopia of a single person who wants to elicit and depend on those hoodlums and killers to entrench his rule on the people in perpetuity.
That’s not the PDP we formed!!!
And so I call on the people of Akwa Ibom State to use their votes to restore Akwa Ibom State to its past glory of peaceful co-existence, friendship and togetherness amongst all its people by voting out all candidates imposed by this present administration in the forth coming general elections because they were not nominated by the people but the impositions of one man and his family.
Long live Akwa Ibom State,
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Chief Don Obot Etiebet, CON. FNCS, FNMGS.
Atuekong Annang.
Obong Uwana Akwa Ibom Reads (15)
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