From Mike Etim, Uyo
As agitation persists from various stakeholders over who governs the state in 2015, the Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio, has said that the reason for his statewide town hall meeting was not to impose his successor.
Akpabio made the clarification in Etinan as people of the Federal Constituency demanded to know what the position of the Ibibio’s would be towards the candidature of governorship position in 2015 elections.
Speaking at the Town Hall meeting in Etinan as part of his tour to commission rural projects across the ten Federal constituencies of the state, Akpabio commended the people of Etinan Federal Constituency for their contribution towards the development of the state but urged the people, in the spirit of fair play, to support his call for power shift to Eket Senatorial District in 2015.
He however emphasized that the party (PDP) would not stop any candidate aspiring to contest the governorship elections from doing so recalling that in 2007 when he contested and won the governorship elections about 58 other contestant from the three senatorial districts contested against him even though, the position of who governs the state was zoned to Ikot Ekpene Senatorial district.
The governor however maintained that having stressed the need for the governorship position to be zoned to Eket Senatorial district, Uyo Senatorial district occupies a very prominent position in the state and could not be left out in the power sharing formula.
To avoid incident where the clamor for governorship position will generate rancor, and divide the party ahead of 2015 elections, the governor promised to convene a stakeholders meeting to look into matters of power sharing.
