Joe Effiong, Uyo
The Speaker of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Onofiok Luke, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to use the same speed he directed the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to investigate the billboard controversies in the state to deal with other security issues in the country.
Luke, alongside some other state government officials were invited by the IGP on the orders of the president to Abuja, last week, allegedly based on the petition written to the president by the state chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking, yesterday, at the plenary of the Assembly, Luke said he got an invitation from the IGP’s monitoring unit, and as a law-abiding citizen, he responded to that invitation, only to realise he was not the only one invited as a former military governor of the state, Otuekong Idongesit Nkanga, commissioner for environment, chairman of Uyo Local Government Area and the senior special assistant to the governor on Security Matters, were equally invited.
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“On getting to the IGP’s office, I was confronted with a petition by the APC chairman, addressed to the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and minuted by the president himself for investigation by the IGP. Part of that very frivolous allegations were issues about comments and billboards.
“They decided to put names together without stating exactly what anybody had done. They lied and said I was on a campaign trail threatening that I was not going to allow a candidate of the opposition party in the state to campaign freely and openly. And I said they should come out with evidences and facts concerning where I ever made such statements. They had none. We were asked to write a statement which we did.
At the point of interview, we stated that in Akwa Ibom state, we are law-abiding citizens of Nigeria and no one can use the office of the president, under the guise of politics, to intimidate us; not even the state security agency.
“That was my message for Akwa Ibom people and teeming supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party in Akwa Ibom. And, we told them (the state APC) that, ‘if you are popular, stop using the state security apparatus to try to intimidate us. “The more you try to intimidate us, the more resolved we are to defend the mandate of Governor Udom Gabriel Emmanuel.”