PDP confirms Akwa Ibom chairman died of COVID-19

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has confirmed its chairman in Akwa Ibom State died of COVID-19.

PREMIUM TIMES reported the passing on of the PDP state chairman, Udo Ekpenyong.

“According to his physicians, He died in the early hours of Tuesday, January 19, 2021 from complications traceable to the novel COVID-19 virus,” the PDP spokesperson in the state, Borono Bassey, said in a statement, Tuesday.

The late Mr Ekpenyong was the sixth chairman of PDP in Akwa Ibom and a former commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in the state.

He was a former member of the PDP National Executive Committee, as well as a former local government chairman in Akwa Ibom.

The late chairman was a strong political ally of the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel.

“Our Party, the PDP has been thrown into unimaginable grief by the news of his passing even as we condole with the bereaved family.

“We are confident that God Almighty who is the source of all comfort will grant us the grace to bear this tragic loss,” Mr Bassey said.

The All Progressives Congress in the state lost its chairman, Ini Okopido, last year.

Just recently, the state lost two prominent figures- a former Chief of Air Staff, Nsikak Edouk, who died of renal failure, and a former military governor of the state, Idongesit Nkanga who died of COVID-19.