A former deputy Inspector general of Police and Senatorial candidate for Akwa Ibom North-West under the platform of All Progressives Congress, DIG Udom Ekpoudom (retd), has described as laughable rumours making the rounds that he has stepped down for Akpabio, saying he would be chased out of Abak if he does so.
Ekpoudom said though there has been pressure on him, he would never succumb to such antics because it would be seen as betraying his people.
The retired DIG who spoke on Saturday in his office at the premises of Tower of Ivory Schools, Abak local government area, while reacting to insinuations that some elders have prevailed on him to step down for Akpabio, said his aspiration to the Senate is not his personal project but to redeem entire Abak 5 communities which have not had any shot at the National Assembly for the past 60 years.
According to him “It’s laughable to say that I stepped down for anyone, some people have been appealing to me to step down not today, not tomorrow but I’ve been saying no, and will continue to say no because it is not my project, precisely but the people’s project, I don’t want to be chased away from Abak federal constituency.
“I don’t want to betray my people, you can even imagine now, for 16 years this part of Akwa Ibom has not produced a Senator, it’s only Ikot Ekpene which had produced five senators and somebody wants to come in again, it’s not possible, Abak-5 is ready or the whole Ikot Ekpene senatorial district is ready. I look at those coming to tell me to step down as enemies of Abak federal constituency.
“Even if they want to offer me the head of state, I won’t accept, all I want is to get what belongs to us. If Abak loses now, it would affect the whole federal constituency and senatorial district”
Ekpoudom who is the proprietor of Tower of Ivory Schools, in the state described Senator Godswill Akpabio as a desperate politician who has turned deaf ears to the voices of prominent stakeholders including, Don Etiebet who has advised him not to contest, adding that he has made him an enemy of Abak-5 people.
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“That is how desperate my brother is, he has the right to do whatever he wants to do. If I were him I wouldn’t go because he has turned himself into the enemy of Abak people and that’s not the best, Don Etiebet is somebody that we respect in Akwa Ibom, if somebody like that talks to him and he didn’t hear who will talk to him and he will hear”
While noting that he has covered so much in his campaigns, the former DIG promised to first address the high level of poverty in the Senatorial district, if elected as a senator.
“I want to alleviate the poverty and sufferings of my people. My people are so poor, they don’t live as if they are in Nigeria. The people they sent there only went to enrich themselves. Look at our youths, moving like nomadic people, because no work for them, graduates for that matter, something must be done” he added.
He blamed politicians for creating insecurity by empowering the youth with money and with arms and ammunition, adding that he would discourage such if elected.
“How politicians empower the youth is by giving them arms and ammunition, by giving them money to take Indian hemp and drugs and I can not do or encourage such things. I will make sure the youths are employed. What is happening to our brothers in the Southeast, how many of them are in government and they are doing well in their businesses? I will train them and want them to be higher than me”
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