Emmanuel’s supporters hold Lagos rally as Akpabio’s godfather backs gov

The Akwa Ibom State Government has said nobody can deter Governor Udom Emmanuel from seeking re-election in 2019.  The Personal Assistant to the wife of the governor on Protocol Matters, Mrs Nsikan Ukpanah, who spoke to journalists during a rally by Emmanuel’s supporters in Lagos, on Saturday, said the governor’s followers were not intimidated.  Asked if ex-governor Godswill Akpabio’s defection to the All Progressives Congress could pose a problem for Emmanuel’s re-election bid, Ukpanah said, “The people of Akwa Ibom voted the governor when they didn’t even know him. Now that they know him, they will vote him again.  “We are not intimidated or afraid of anybody. One man is not enough to make the governor stay back; it is the people that matter. These people (supporters) that came out were not sponsored by the governor. They invited me. You can see them in the rain; they are passionate about the governor. That is to show you that the governor deserves a second term.”  Ukpanah advised Akwa Ibom indigenes in Lagos to transfer their voter cards to Uyo, “because we are going to vote the governor back to the seat of power.”  According to her, the people of Akwa Ibom are proud of Emmanuel and his feats since he assumed office in 2015.  Meanwhile, a political godfather of Senator Akpabio, Chief Michael Afangide, has joined the campaign for Emmanuel’s re-election.  Ninety-eight-year-old Afangide who is one of the frontline elders in the state, said he was supporting Emmanuel because of his detribalised approach to governance and seriousness in providing infrastructure in the state.  Afangide, who Akpabio, fondly calls the political leader of Essien Udim, where they both hail from, described himself as a founding father of the PDP.  He said in Uyo on Saturday that he supported former governor Victor Attah to lead the state for two terms likewise Akpabio, adding that he had no reason not to support the PDP and Emmanuel for two terms as governor.  Saying Akapbio is still his political godson, he added that the senator’s reason for leaving the PDP was personal to him and he cannot carry him (Afangide) along with him to the APC.  “For over 20 years, we have been building the PDP, I cannot build a thing of such magnitude and get up one day to abandon it for no good reason,” he said 

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