APC chieftain faults Umoren’s appointment as A’Ibom SSG

A chieftain of the All Progressives
Congress in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Ita
Awak, has described the appointment of
Mr. Eteakamba Umoren as Secretary to
the Akwa Ibom State Government as a
continuation of Godswill Akpabio’s
marginalisation of the Oro ethnic group
in the state.
Awak, who expressed the confidence that
the Akwa Ibom State Governorship
Election Petitions Tribunal would upturn
the results of the election that produced
Mr. Udom Emmanuel as the state
governor, said it would have been fair to
appoint an Oro indigene as the SSG.
A statement signed by the Senior Special
Assistant and Chief Press Secretary to
the governor, Mr. Ekerette Udoh, on
Monday, confirmed the appointment of
the former Chief of Staff to Akpabio, Mr.
Etekamba Umoren, as the SSG.
Umoren, who is a retired Permanent
Secretary, Government House, Uyo, is a
graduate of the University of Benin and
a Knight of John Wesley.
Awak said, “What this means is that in
the ‘temporal government’ of Emmanuel,
his deputy is from Annang, Etim Ekpo
Local Government Area and the SSG slot
again goes to another Annang, from
Essien Udim Local Government Area,
where Akpabio hails from.
“Emmanuel has just announced his first
appointments. It will not be long before
the Akwa Ibom State Governorship
Election Petitions Tribunal will nullify
the fraudulent and violent governorship
election that produced the crimsoned
platform upon which these appointments
were made.
“In effect, in the executive arm of
government, an Ibibio man is governor,
an Annang man is deputy and another
Annang man is SSG, but Oro ethnic
nationality has nobody. We can see the
continuity of impunity and total
insensitivity and disregard to other
ethnic nationalities in the state.
“But when will our Oro brothers and
sisters who are doing political business
with the Annang fellow called Godswill
Akpabio learn their lessons?”
Awak added that with the transfer of the
governorship and legislative elections
tribunals to Abuja for security reasons,
the APC and the people of Akwa Ibom
State would get victory.