Udeme Edikan, Uyo
Wives of some Akwa Ibom APC chieftains whose husbands were gruesomely murdered between 2007-2015 in the state have berated President Muhammadu Buhari for appointing former Governor Godswill Akpabio as the National Coordinator of Presidential Support Committee (PSC) for the 2019 presidential election.
Speaking to newsmen in Uyo, a relative of late Hon Okon Uwah who was murdered in cold blood for supporting the APC in 2015, who spoke on behalf of the widow to the former Legislator said, the President and APC have just succeeded in adding salt to injury to the memory of their son and husband by appointing a man the APC itself as a party accused in the build up to the 2015 general elections of killing Okon Uwah to lead the PSC.
She said, APC has by its action proven it is insensitive to the feelings of her members and that the only way to be rewarded by the party is through one’s ability to kill, main and destroy.
She regretted that the same people who cried more than the bereaved over the death of Okon Uwah are now among the first callers at Akpabio’s house, regretting that the late former Deputy Speaker of the state assembly would be turning in his grave seeing the betrayal the APC and his friends have done to his memory.
In the same vein, a widow of the Ukpanah’s family, described the APC’s action as disgraceful because it has sent a wrong signal that a party member can be killed and the killers rewarded by the same party just for the sake of power.
“Is it not the same Akpabio who abused and called Buhari all sort of names in 2015? Is the Akpabio nominated as Campaign Coordinator different from the Akpabio who ordered the killing of APC chieftains and supporters in Akwa Ibom just because we supported Buhari in 2015? What message is Buhari telling us, that our loved ones died in vain?”, she said.
Similarly, a relative of the late Dr Ime Umanah, who spoke for the family also described the APC as a party of blood thirsty vampires whose preoccupation is power and nothing more. She described Akpabio as one reason the former APC Deputy Governorship candidate died and wondered the moral justification of appointing a man who is attributed by the same party as being responsible for the death of hundreds of APC chieftains and supporters to head a campaign committee of a party that promised change and anti-corruption fight.
“I can’t believe this is happening. But again, it goes to show what APC is capable of doing. It is also a signal to the present crop of APC chieftains to be cautious because the same element that persecuted and killed Ime Umanah is now in house and may also extend the same “hand of fellowship” to other APC chieftains who today are cowards and not willing to speak out against the wanton impunity going on in the party in the name of loyalty”, she said
Recollect that, Akpabio was on thursday in Abuja, appointed National Coordinator of the Presidential Support Committee (PSC) to manage the affairs of all President Buhari support groups and showcase his achievements ahead of 2019, a move that has been greeted with outrage by a cross section of APC members in Akwa Ibom state mostly families whose loved ones were murdered in cold blood for supporting the APC especially during the regime of Senator Akpabio as Governor.
