Nigerian Governor Akpabio Refutes Allegation of Haboring Killed Squad in Akwa Ibom

Governor Chief Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria. He has blamed successive governments for the failure to develop programs that would curb violence in the Niger Delta., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Akpabio Refutes Allegation of Harbouring Killer Squad

17 May 2013
Nigeria ThisDay

* Says PDP governors’ forum is for self-cleansing

Akwa Ibom State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio has refuted allegations of harbouring killer squad that the state government uses to terrorise or kill his perceived political opponents.

Refuting the allegations while speaking with reporters in Uyo, the governor described as baseless and a figment of the imagination of those who peddle rumours that he was intimidating political enemies in the state including the Senator representing Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District in the Senate, Senator Aloysius Etok.

He insisted that his administration was not after anybody or the political ambition of any serving politician at the state or national levels indicating the innocence of the state leadership in cult activities had repeatedly been proved before leading clerics and religious bodies in the state.

Lauding the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for intervening in major disagreement with any political stakeholder in the state including the recent one of Etok, Akpabio described his alleged harbouring of a killer squad in the state as blackmail and defamation of character.

The state government, he said was considering legal action against those who defamed the leadership of the state indicating that the interest of the state administration was to deliver dividends of democracy for the people of the state to enjoy.

The governor, who spoke on a wide range of issues, dismissed the claims by opposition parties that PDP will lose many governors in the 2015 general election rather he said more state governors will emerge during future elections in the country.

Akpabio attributed the formation of PDP Governors’ Forum in the country to the increasing number of governors across the country under the PDP fold, stressing that the forum was not a campaign machinery of projecting the political ambition of anybody.

He maintained that the PDP Governors’ Forum was formed to assess the performances of the governors in their respective states as the governors are those who drive the engine of governance at the state level.

Akpabio who is the pioneer chairman of the forum, argued that there was nothing wrong for the formation of the body as its support the efforts of the President Goodluck Jonathan in ensuring good governance in the country.

Since the emergence of the forum, Akpabio said it has helped in re-uniting the governors of the ruling party stating that the forum was a unit of self-cleansing for future expansion of the party’s achievements.

The governor urged Nigerians to continue to support President Jonathan by ensuring that a peaceful atmosphere thrive county in the country saying that it was only in an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity that meaningful development can be achieved.

In another development, Akpabio Thursday said in Abuja that Nigerians were now living in fear due to the constants threat to lives besetting the country which, according to him, is contributing to bad governance.

According to him, the absence of freedom and security to worship, associate and freely, live in any part of the country without being killed or bombed has made Nigerians yet to fully understand and enjoy the essence of independence and democracy.

The governor who was a guest at a forum put together by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), added that the fundamental rights of all Nigerians which accompanied the declaration of independence in 1960 is now absent due to insecurity.

Speaking on the theme, “Good Governance and Transformation,” the governor noted that the military, while ruling the country introduced a culture of injustice and impunity and usher in poor leadership that gave birth to the problem of corruption currently seen in the country.