The Akwa Ibom REC lamented that it was unfortunate that the Peoples Democratic Party elements, who had previously accused him of sabotage were presently in the APC today and still accusing him of working for the opposition.
He said; “The petitioner (Agbomhere) was in the PDP. The first place I worked was Cross River State and I witnessed the arrogance of power of the then ruling PDP in 2011. They didn’t conduct their primary when they said they did and the electoral officers wrote their report which I endorsed and on which basis, Prof Attahiru Jega, the then INEC Chairman, acted. They protested and former President Goodluck Jonathan told them to keep quiet and that he brought Jega to sanitise the system. The Congress for Progressive Change, which was then the party of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), won an election and Bola Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria also won Obubra. Blessing was in the PDP then and accused me of being a member of the ACN.
“In 2015 when I was deployed to Edo State, the arrogance of power was also on display by some PDP elements except for respectable personalities like Chief Orbih and a few others. This Blessing, from Edo, was a PDP member and they were the ones who said they were going to use federal might. I told them the hallmark of democracy will be a peaceful transfer of power and that there will be no federal might. Edo was the only state in the South-South where Buhari scored more than the required 25 per cent. He had 46 per cent. The APC got one senatorial seat and four out of nine federal seats, and also controlled the state assembly. That is my record of absolute neutrality.
“All the characters you are seeing in the APC today, accusing me, were in the PDP and they went after us, the sane arrogance is what they are displaying today because they carried that mentality to the APC. Unfortunately, Nigeria is a country where there is no book of remembrance. We cannot have a democracy without democrats. Where was this Blessing when gunmen invaded my house in Benin because I stood against the purported federal might? That same individual is now in the ruling party. I did the same in 2014 in Osun State. I did the same thing in Anambra State, and Imo State when there was a crisis, and I was sent to intervene.
“In respect of Akwa Ibom, the former senator, who is behind all these, all the period Buhari contested election, he never got 10 per cent in this state. It was only when Mike Igini came, the people’s votes began to count. Then, they said I was brought here to dislodge the PDP. They have their internal problems. They have three factions. That is the foundational problem and not Mike Igini. You can buy some people all of the time but you cannot buy all the people all of the time.
“My records do not suggest anything they have said. Dishonest people are all over the place walking like colossi because we are in a country where our value pyramid is upside down.
“My only response is my record. All the people who are talking now were all members of the PDP.”
