EDE
URUA, EKET,
AKWA
IBOM STATE.
July 22, 2014
Elder
Udom G. Emmanuel
Secretary
to Government of
Akwa
Ibom State
Governor’s
Office
Uyo,
Akwa Ibom State.
My
dear Elder,
THREAT, BY GOVERNOR GODSWILL AKPABIO,
TO ASSASSINATE YOUR POLITICAL OPPONENTS.
I
heard the blood curdling story (reported in every Nigerian Newspaper in print
and on-line, including the Punch newspaper of Thursday the 19th of
July 2014 at page 19) of the decision of Governor Akpabio, CON, to assassinate
all of us who want to contest the 2015 Governorship elections against you, his
anointed political candidate and presumed successor. I could have addressed
this letter to him but find it unnecessary in the belief that as the would be
beneficiary of the political assassinations which Governor Akpabio has promised
to unleash on the State, you are in the best position to persuade him not to kill us, on your behalf, just for exercising
our rights under the Nigerian Constitution.
I
take this option because Akpabio is not joking. The word of the Governor is the
word of the Pope ex-Cathedra and
cannot be taken lightly. As the head of a Government, whose primary
responsibility ought to be the protection of lives and property of its
citizens, when he threatens the elite political class with death, he gives us
clear notice of what he intends to do. He has the ability, determination,
willingness, persuasion and experience to carry out his decision. After all, he
enjoys immunity from prosecution. You must be aware of the politically
motivated murders in Akwa Ibom State, under the leadership of Governor Akpabio,
which have remained unresolved to date. Under the circumstance only a fool
would take the undertaking by the Governor, to kill more politicians as a mere
gaffe. The assassination of a few of us who have dared to indicate interest in
the race, even before it begins, may not be the most difficult thing for a man
who found the presence of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party
the most convenient occasion to make the declaration.
One
thing I can guarantee you is that whoever is killed in your name will certainly
leave a trail of revenge killings which the dead may be unable to end. The
consequences of such an act could also spell doom for you and your family but will surely never make you Governor.
As an Elder of the Church, you know the futility of such an act. No man becomes
King unless the Almighty God proclaims him. Herod killed thousands of male
children in Israel, yet Herod could neither impose himself nor his protégée.
How then will Governor Akpabio’s decision to impose you succeed, by killing
your opponents and how will the killing
of political opponents ever stop if you succeed him?
And
who are those he wants dead? Citizens of Akwa Ibom State of your ethnic stock,
fathers and husbands, those who worked, campaigned and spent their time and
money for him to become Governor, those who salvaged his Government and
laundered his image, those who stood by him when he was wearing the garment of
cultists, those who gave him hope when he was hopeless, those who faced the
difficult times with him, and my dear brother, you were not there. If you have
to harvest what you did not sow, why kill the owners of the farm like the
owners of the house, the only ones entitled to enter the house through the back
door?
I do
not share the view that you are such a bad candidate who cannot win an election
unless all your opponents are dead. The point is however moot, that as a
politician under the aegis and shadows of Godswill Akpabio, you seem to live by
his tenets, sharing his vision, not having yours, adopting his character and
abandoning yours, and accepting his aspiration as yours. If you ever intended
on your own to contest election for Governor, you would have been your own man.
I have had an occasion to tell you on telephone that you have inherited the
sludge of Godswill Akpabio’s political personality by accepting to contest the
elections as his protégée. It seems, you are stuck with him and have to ride
out the storm in that dingy boat and take responsibility for his actions, in
the understanding that whatever he does to us, your opponents, is for your
benefit. In other words whatever you are doing is through Godswill Akpabio.
I
wish you well. You must know that the entire Country’s political class now
knows why Governor Akpabio would kill to put you in office. I wish you could be
the man that you are, step out of Akpabio’s shadow, contest the primaries as
your own man, denounce this evil plan publicly now and distance yourself from
it, perchance it happens. Seek for a transparent contest and let us meet at the
congress. This is the only way to assure the people that you are not a part of
the scheme and would want no benefit from it.
Speaking
for myself, I can assure you that no threat can deter me from the pursuit of a
goal I have set for myself and no coercion can force me out of a match. I will
use this forum to warn other aspirants to treat Governor Akpabio’s threat with
the seriousness it deserves. We cannot cower before him just to make you
Governor, otherwise we would have fertilized the grounds for the next dictator
in Akwa Ibom. Since he has put me on notice of his intention to assassinate me,
to make you Governor through the front door, I have taken certain precautions
in the hope that we will not get there, if you can persuade him. If you can’t
persuade him, I will be waiting for you at the rear door, as the owner of the
house, should you want to use the owner’s entrance.
As
always, please accept my best and sincere regards.
Chief Assam E. Assam, SAN
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