TheHILL | POLITICS | AUG. 1.
The Chapter Auditor and former vice chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Onna chapter, Hon Emmanuel Ekpeyo has given reasons why he and 5 chapter officers and 20 Ward Executives left the party for YPP on Saturday.
However, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel hails from ONNA
Speaking to newsmen in Uyo on Saturday immediately after the reception of Senator Bassey Albert Akpan, OBA into the Young Progressive Party, YPP, Ekpeyo said that,
“PDP has failed Akwa Ibomites. It has never been like this since 1999. Umbrella was to cover someone during rain or sunshine but under this administration rain is beating majority of people under the umbrella than those without umbrella”,
“Never in my life time have i seen a Special Assistant, SA, to the governor being paid ninety thousand Naira monthly”,
“Under the present administration, hunger, poverty has increased in volume. Abandoned projects all over the land, intimidation and insensitivity to divergent views has made many members suffer in silence”, he said, adding that even some projects like roads executed in the State are sub standard.
Ekpeyo, a grassroot mobilizer and national coordinator Friends Of Dr Goodluck Jonathan, from Ikwe Town in Onna Local Government Area said further that the only road leading to his community has remained in a very bad state in the past seven years after contract for the construction of the road from Ndon Eyo junction in Onna was awarded to VSK company.
The company, he said, has abandoned the road and even left it in a worst situation than it was in the olden days, adding that his community and other villages along the road has been cut off from the rest of the State and that the only available way to access other parts of Onna and Eket is through the river.
“NDDC came to construct that road for us but the State government chased them away with the assurance that the road is under construction by VSK company which i think was brought to siphon Akwa Ibom money”,
“We don’t have infrastructure such as public power supply, health facilities and schools despite the volume of votes our community gave to the emergence of the present administration of Governor Udom Emmanuel from 2015”, he lamented.
Hon Ekpeyo lamented that the people of Ikwe were suffering under the umbrella administration with a Governor who is from Onna and concluded that the only option was for him and other members of the party to leave after every efforts were made to ensure that the Onna-Ikwe-Odio Road received attention from the State government.
He called on the State government to release the compensation that was paid to Ikwe people by the Federal Government in the past five years in respect of the Oil and Gas Industrial Park.
“With the present political dilemma facing the umbrella party in the State, i am afraid, the party will sooner than later come to its knees with YPP taking over the State in 2023”, Ekpeyo averred.
