…write Akpabio over neglect, displacement
By Our Correspondent
Amid the visit of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to Akwa Ibom State, aboriginal members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state have cried out to the President of the Senate, His Excellency, Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio, GCON, over what they described as neglect, displacement and total exclusion from the party and government they laboured to build.
In an open letter signed on behalf of concerned aggrieved aboriginal members by Engr. Gregory Udofia from Southern Uruan Ward 5, Uruan Local Government Area, the party stalwarts said the founding members of the APC in Akwa Ibom have been abandoned despite years of sacrifice, loyalty and personal investment.
“I am writing this letter with a heavy heart, but not without hope that given your well-known genial disposition towards the underprivileged ones in the society, something will be done to ameliorate the great suffering of the aboriginal members of the APC in Akwa Ibom State,” Udofia wrote.
Udofia, who identified himself as one of the first APC Ward Leader in Southern Uruan Ward 5, said he has been an active member of the party since 2015 when the APC was yet a fledgling party in the state.
He recalled how he and his counterparts across the state worked tirelessly for the party in the 2015 governorship election.
“With my fellow counterparts all over the state, we worked assiduously for the success of the party in that year’s gubernatorial elections even though we eventually lost the election which would have brought our candidate, Obong Umana Okon Umana, into office,” he stated.
According to him, the loss had far-reaching consequences for the grassroots champions of the party.
“And because the APC did not win that gubernatorial election nor form the subsequent government in the state, we who championed the cause of the party at the grassroots were left out in the cold: no political appointments from anywhere, no contracts however meager, and without any political connection with Abuja which could have attracted some economic dividends to us,” Udofia lamented.
He disclosed that some of them expended their personal resources on the party, and that his own open support for the APC cost him dearly in his professional life.
“Also, for someone like me, a very experienced Civil Engineering Consultant, who had hitherto supervised several road projects in the state, my open support for the APC caused me to lose favour with the state Government,” he said.
Udofia noted that when the PDP-led government of Pastor Umo Eno entered into a partnership and collaboration with the APC in the state in June 2025, the argument was that the political marriage was to facilitate unity, growth and development in the party and in the state.
“Fine rhetoric!” he wrote, but added that “current reality in the state does not reflect that fact.”
He revealed that the aboriginal members had supported various ‘original’ APC aspirants for various constituencies during the just concluded party primaries in the hope that they will be part of government upon their victories at the forthcoming general elections.
But their hopes were dashed, he said, when His Excellency, the Governor pointedly asked them to step down for elected PDP members who followed him to the APC.
As a consequence, Udofia lamented, neither are the aboriginal APC members appointed as Commissioners, Special Assistants/Advisers, etc, nor elected as National and State Assembly members or Council Chairmen and Councillors.
To worsen their frustrations, he added, nearly all the aboriginal APC members who were occupying key positions in the party from State, Chapters to Wards, have been removed from such positions and replaced with new members from the PDP.
“Indeed today, the APC in Akwa Ibom State is far from being united in the true sense of the word, as those who came into the party on the back of Governor Umo Eno have completely displaced us from our former positions in the party, usurped all authority in the party, and cornered all the juicy appointments and contracts for themselves leaving us the aboriginal members of the party with absolutely nothing to show for our past services and sacrifices to the party,” he wrote.
Udofia queried: “But what should be expected from a people who see us as political opponents rather than political partners which purpose of coming together was for the mutual benefit of all?
“New entrants into the APC even went as far as insultingly relegating very prominent founding leaders of the party to the background.
“For instance, in Nsit Ibom local government area, a former Military governor of Rivers and Ogun states, His Excellency Grp. Cpt. Sam Ewang (rtd) has been tactically pushed out of the Party’s leadership podium with serious attempt to be replaced with a House of Assembly member who just joined the APC. Same thing in Uruan LGA where I come from, wherein Retired Justice Andrew Okon, who sacrificed so much as Leader of the party, has also been sidelined.
This is just to mention but a few of what is going on across the entire state. But ironically, in one of the State-organized monthly prayers I attended, I heard the governor, His Excellency Pastor Umo Eno vividly instructing that no one should temper with the party structures. The question now is: from where do these people who cause these problems derive their powers and directives?”.
He said he was taking pains to illustrate the sad development because Akpabio is a great patriarchal leader whose past leadership of the state had not only brought great benefits to the state, but had also attracted much economic dividends to those who worked for his electoral successes.
“Sorry to say here, sir, that this is not the case with the current leadership in the state and our party, hence this call for your urgent intervention,” he added.
Quoting a popular African proverb, Udofia warned: “A river which forgets its source, will soon dry up, and I hope these words will dawn on the current leadership of the party in the state and cause them to do the right thing now that there is still a little time left.”
He said his desire and dream has always been for the APC to succeed in all elections, especially in the next general elections coming up early next year.
“My prayer, therefore, is that something be done urgently to address the disaffection in the party in order to give all members a proper sense of belonging in the party,” he stated.
Udofia saluted Akpabio for representing the state and party well at the Senate and for his past unparalleled leadership, expressing confidence that given his well-known political pedigree, prompt attention shall be given to their complaints.
“I salute you, sir, for representing our state and party well at the senate and for your past unparalleled leadership. I salute you also in the knowledge that given your well-known political pedigree, prompt attention shall be given to our complaints,” the release stressed.
He concluded: “May God bless and prosper you in all your future political undertakings and continue to bless your able stewardship of our dear party, state and country.”
Most stakeholders of the party who spoke on grounds of anonymity in reaction to Engr Udofia’s open letter said coming amid President Tinubu’s visit, is a wake-up call for the leadership of the APC in the state to address internal grievances and foster genuine unity if the party hopes to go into the next elections as a cohesive and formidable force.
As at the time of filing this report, neither the Senate President nor the state leadership of the APC had issued an official response to the letter.