Group warns Onofiok Luke, Caution Governor Udom Emmanuel over Uyo Senate seat.

By Effiong WILLIAM

A group, Uyo Federal Constituency Youth Ambassadors, has called on Governor Udom Emmanuel to choose between his re-election bid as governor of Akwa Ibom State in 2019 and supporting Senator Bassey Albert”s second term ambition to represent Uyo in the National Assembly.

The group also warned the Speaker of the state house of assembly, Onofiok Luke, to steer clear of the quest for who occupies the Uyo Senate seat in 2019, as majority of the people are “too experienced to be cowed by political sentiments”.

They made the comments in statement signed by Unyime Ekong, publicity secretary of the group, on Tuesday, adding that those who are agitating for Senator Albert’s return in 2019 do not have the interest of the Uyo Senatorial District at heart.

The group said, “Governor Udom Emmanuel should understand that the generality of the people from Uyo senatorial district are totally not in support of Albert’s return because they know that going by extant zoning of the seat among the three federal constituencies in the district, Uyo federal constituency will be the area to produce the next senator in 2019”.

The group further stated that those pushing for the senator’s return are not sagacious, accusing them of allowing ill informed persons who do not understand the Uyo senatorial succession to be championing Albert’s cause to their detriment.

They added: Senator Bassey Albert, from Itu/Ibiono Ibom federal constituency, won Senator Ita Enang and got the PDP senatorial ticket in 2015. Therefore, he is currently completing the second term tenure Ita Enang could not secure.

“It will interest our people to know that Senator Enang, who is now Presidential Adviser on Nationality Assembly Matters-Senate, started the Itu/Ibiono Ibom ticket in 2011.

“Before the emergence of Senator Enang, Senator John Akpanudoedehe, from Uyo federal constituency, was elected and he served in the National Assembly between 1999 and 2003.

“Akpanudoedehe didn’t go for second term because Effiong Bob, who is from Etinan Federal Constituency, won and served two terms as Senator for the district between 2003 and 2011.

“By following properly the history of those who have served as senator for Uyo senatorial district since 1999 when Nigeria returned to democracy, it would be seen that if by 2019, Senator Albert completes his tenure, Etinan and Itu/Ibiono Ibom federal constituencies would have completed two terms each on that seat, except Uyo, the third federal constituency in the district. Uyo took just a term.

“The PDP in Akwa Ibom State and Governor Udom Emmanuel cannot be talking about subscribing to zoning in 2019, and then be talking about Albert going for a second termat the same time. 2019 will be the turn of Uyo federal constituency to produce the next senator”.

The group’s comment is coming one week after stakeholders of the PDP in Uyo Federal Constituency said that they would not concede the Uyo senatorial seat to any other federal constituency in the district next year.

The group recalled that Senator Albert was one of those who scuttled the third term ambition of Senator Effiong Bob using the Uyo senatorial district elders forum, when the latter sought to take a third shot at the Senate in 2011.

They said, “If OBA wins and becomes Senator in 2019, it will mean that Itu/Ibiono Ibom federal constituency in Uyo senatorial district will serve three terms in the Senate at the end. We don’t want that to happen. It will be against the principles of zoning Governor Udom Emmanuel and the PDP are currently canvassing.

“OBA cannot come from behind to seek a third term for Itu/Ibiono Ibom federal constituency. He was one of the Uyo senatorial district stakeholders who signed the communiqué that finally thwarted Effiong Bob’s third term quest in 2011.

“And he was one of those who said Etinan Federal constituency where Bob comes from would not serve a third term in the senate.

“If he moved against Bob’s third term ambition, why is he looking for a third term for Itu/Ibiono Ibom? Zoning must apply in Uyo senatorial district in 2019, that is what we stand for”.

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