Etiebet blasts Akpabio over Gulak

A member of the Peoples Democratic Board of Trustees, Chief Don Etiebet, has said the warning that the Akwa Ibom State Executive Committee of the PDP issued against the President’s Political Adviser, Ahmed Gulak, amounted to a disrespect of the office of the President of Nigeria.
The State Executive Committee of the PDP at a meeting held two days ago in Akwa Ibom State had asked the Presidency to call Gulak to order on allegation that he was meddling in the politics of Akwa Ibom State to the displeasure of the state Governor, Obong Godswill Akpabio.
However, Etiebet said such action by the governor and his supporters was contemptuous of the person and office of the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, with the governor having failed to officially lay the issue quietly before the President but rather did so through the pages of newspapers.
Etiebet, in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja, said: “It is contemptuous to hear the SEC of our Party passing such a damning and abusive resolution on the Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, at a meeting while the Governor was in attendance.
“One would have thought that with the closeness, support, love and respect Akpabio, the Chairman PDP Governors’ Forum has for the President and the Party, he should have reported the alleged intransigence of Alhaji Gulak when he visited his State to the President.
“He should have tried to find out why Gulak was in his State without his knowledge and consent before he allowed the displeasure of the SEC to go public in a communiqué of the SEC meeting in which he was in attendance.
“The SEC cannot banish Alhaji Gulak to Adamawa alone as he is Special Adviser on Political Affairs to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and not for Adamawa State. That resolution smacks of absolute disrespect for the Office of the President whose appointee Alhaji Gulak is.
“May I ask the SEC whether the President is a delegate or a voter in the Senatorial District? I beg you, Mr President, this is deriding your office by the SEC of our Party in my State, I apologise for their not well thought out action
“May I say this could be instructive of the things to come in the State. If they can call on the President to do that, one can imagine the levels of illegality, intimidation and harassment they may have in store for their opponents in the forth coming PDP primaries.”
Etiebet, however, berated the SEC meeting, stating that he refused to attend because “such meetings are held in PDP office and not in a government enclave”.
He said coming to the national level, the National Executive Committee of the PDP had never held in the Presidential Villa.
The BOT member dismissed resolve by the party in Akwa Ibom State to close the contest for the governorship seat in 2015, on account of zoning, stating that every eligible political office seeker in the state should exercise the freedom to participate in the coming general election in Akwa Ibom State.
Etiebet insisted that the idea of zoning of the governorship seat in Akwa Ibom State to Eket Senatorial District, according to plans by Akpabio, must be nipped in the bud.
He said: “I, Chief Don Obot Etiebet, CON, Founding Father and Permanent Member of Board of Trustees of PDP from the State, hereby state unequivocally that aspirants from any part of the State would not be denied nomination Forms and proper processing of their applications
“When the time comes, they should go about their consultations without any hindrance or mistrust.”
Etiebet recalled that in 2006, over 56 aspirants from the three Senatorial Districts contested the governorship seat, whereas Akpabio emerged the winner.
He said the governor has since been alluding to that fact with emphasis that he was a product of the choice of the people of Akwa Ibom State.