The Coalition of Akwa Ibom Youth Groups has tackled Governor Udom Emmanuel over his choice of Pastor Umo Eno, the state Commissioner of Lands as his successor in the 2023 governorship election.
The groups said the governor has no right to singlehandedly nominate a governorship candidate for over six million people of the state.
According to them, no individual has the mandate to nominate a flag bearer for an election, except for political parties.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, the Speaker of the South-South Youth Assembly, Victor Thompson, said the governor’s action of handpicking a successor before the party primary amounted to imposition of a governor for the people.
Thompson noted that the governor “in his bid to exploit the element of his godliness of our people and their affinity to God,” came up with a misleading vision that God has revealed a successor to him.
He maintained that “It is very surprising that the governor is the only person in the state of over 6 million that can hear from God.”
Continuing, he said, “The governor on the other hand has done a great disservice to the sensibility of over six million Akwa Ibom persons by singlehandedly trying to impose liability on Akwa Ibom political space for yet-to-be-disclosed reasons.
“It is pertinent to mention that Pastor Umo Eno who has never been associated with nor interested in the political process in Akwa Ibom state, will suddenly become interested in the race and so appointed without consideration for others who have paid their dues, loyalty, resources, time etc to nurse the administration until now.”
