-Uses President’s failing health for his 2019
governorship campaign
-Draws battle line with Sam Akpan, shuns Bishop’s 60th birthday
The failing health condition of President Muhammadu Buhari has taken a different dimension in Akwa Ibom State with the planned mockery prayer and a decoy on the President’s Health condition by the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC, Mr Nsima Ekere who is hiding under the cover of youth prayer rally to launch his 2019 governorship campaign.
The campaign rally in the name of prayer which is scheduled to take place in Akwa Ibom State on Friday 23rd June 2017 will hold at the Nsima Ekere’s campaign office along Edet Akpan Avenue, Uyo.
Already, the NDDC MD has compiled the names and list of those who will lead the group. The planned campaign rally is to set up a rival group dominating by youths within the All Progressives Congress APC, Akwa Ibom State chapter which has already been turned apart by infighting within the party.
A source whose name is in the list of the yet to be inaugurated campaign team for Nsima Ekere who pleaded anonymity told this reporter that the group is coming to rival with another group in the APC called “the REAL APC” which is currently advocating for Senator John James Akpanudoedehe to be considered as the gubernatorial candidate of APC come 2019.
He maintained that with the way things are going on in APC, it became very imperative to organize a rival group for Nsima Ekere, and the only opportunity to launch the group in a big way to receive the blessing of some stakeholders of the party is to organize a prayer rally for President Buhari and use it to unveil the group.
The source maintained that the growing popularity of Udoedehe in the APC is impacting negatively on Nsima Ekere’s governorship ambition which needs to be put under a serious check.
But a lot of people in the state and within the APC are not comfortable with the idea of using the President’s health to advance Nsima Ekere’s governorship aspiration. People wondered the level of desperation by the NDDC MD just to become a governor. Adding that the way Nsima Ekere is going about his 2019 governorship ambition, it is clear that the NDDC MD is so desperate and can do anything to become governor if he can use Buhari’s health to launch his governorship campaign.
A chieftain of APC, Mr Udeme Ekott said, “Some people can be so unfeeling.
The man that gave you the appointment is very sick and that is the auspicious time for you to launch your governorship campaign. And on top of that you are using his ill health as a decoy. Akwa Ibom people have seen the level of desperation of this NDDC man. This level of insincerity, playing politics with Buhari’s health is very bad. Launching your youth campaign structure under the guise of praying for President Buhari is very immoral. You are not better than the Pharisees”!
Meanwhile, the NDDC MD who is poised to chest away anybody he feels will constitute a threat to his governorship ambition has drawn a battle line with Bishop Samuel Akpan, the governorship candidate of the Accord Party in 2015 election who dumped his party for APC recently.
Bishop Akpan was said to have been received by the Umana Umana led faction of the Akwa Ibom APC without the blessing of Nsima Ekere. It was gathered that Ekere had earlier disagreed with Umana Umana on the idea of allowing Akpan into APC, but Umana still went ahead with the plan.
This development, a sources close to the NDDC MD confirmed that does not go down well with Ekere who refused to attain the event. He said that Ekere is very bitter with Sam Akpan who is coming to contest the governorship ticket of the party with him. He maintained that Ekere is wondering why Akpan should bring his own trouble to the APC when he is currently battling to contain with Udoedehe.
But Akpan was very emphatic in his remark that he will contest the 2019 governorship election in the state. This development according to the source, made Ekere to be troubled and confused.
In a related development the governors of Niger Delta State have accused the MD of NDDC of turning the commission into a campaign ground for his 2019 governorship ambition in Akwa Ibom State.
Speaking on behalf of the governors, the Governor of River State, Barr Nyesom Wike said NDDC should focus on the development of the region, instead of being involved in partisan politics.
The Governor stated this at Government House, Port Harcourt when he granted audience to the Governing Board of the NDDC, Governor Wike said it will be counterproductive if NDDC continues to operate like a political party.
He noted that development in the Niger Delta has been stunted because of the politicization of the activities of NDDC, which makes it difficult for the commission to focus on its core mandate. The governor said that the NDDC is not a state; hence it must subject itself to the laws of the states where it operates.
The source leaked that Governor Wike’s view is the aggregate opinion of other governors in the region when he further warned that, “It is worrisome that NDDC is trying to politicise the execution of projects and this will not help the development of the region”.
Governor Wike who expressed concern that, the NDDC is not a political party charged the board to channel all efforts towards the betterment of the people”
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