Tension in Akwa Ibom APC as old members claim those who joined with Eno have hijacked party

Tension is building within the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State, as its founding members accuse the new members who joined the party alongside Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom of marginalising them in party affairs.

Mr Eno and some of his cabinet members and supporters defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in June last year to the APC.

The governor claimed he defected to the APC in order to “connect” Akwa Ibom with the centre, since the APC is the ruling party at the national level. He also claimed that he left the PDP because he wants to campaign freely for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.

PREMIUM TIMES became aware of the rift in the Akwa Ibom APC after Unyime Ekwere, an APC chieftain and journalist, posted a public appeal on his Facebook page on 3 January, urging Governor Eno, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, and the party leadership to include founding members in the party affairs.

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In his post, Mr Ekwere praised the governor for setting up an eight-man Congress Implementation Committee ahead of the 2026 congresses but warned that “friendly but consistent feelers” suggested that some older members of the APC felt excluded from consultations and decision-making.

When contacted by PREMIUM TIMES, several older members of the APC echoed those concerns, describing the committee as symbolic of a broader power shift within the party.

‘Stakeholders must be accommodated’ – Okon Ime

Okon Ime, a former President of Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio, an influential socio-cultural group in Akwa Ibom, stated that the issue was not about personal ambition but rather a clamour for recognition of those who had held the party together during difficult years.

“I have been a contestant on several occasions, but I don’t mind if I am not included. However, the main stakeholders should be accommodated,” he said.

“For those who have held the party together for all the warring years, Amadu Attai (a former APC chairman in Akwa Ibom) should be accommodated in the new arrangements.”

Mr Ime contested multiple elections, including state and federal legislative elections, on the APC platform.

Unrecognised, unrewarded sacrifices

Christopher Enoch, another APC chieftain in Akwa Ibom, said original members and long-time aspirants felt sidelined despite their sacrifices.

He explained that many of them financed and sustained the party long before Governor Eno’s defection and believed they should be carried along, especially as the party prepares for the 2027 general elections.

“We are not opposed to bringing in the new members of the APC, but include and integrate the old ones so that they have that sense of belonging,” he said. “The party has to be one. I want us to build one united party,” he added.

Mr Enoch added that the exclusion might not reflect the governor’s personal intentions.

“I can tell you that is not the governor’s doing… but the people he is working with are self-centred.”

‘Insulting and demeaning’

Another member, who requested anonymity, was blunt, accusing recent defectors to the APC of taking over the party structures.

“The congress implementation committee, beginning from the chairperson to the last man, is not APC. I say it boldly, none of them is APC,” he said.

“This party was built on sweat and struggle,” the source said, questioning why no figures associated with former APC standard-bearers such as Nsima Ekere or Akan Udofia were included.

“Even the stakeholders of the APC, no foundation member is part of it. How insulting, how demeaning?”

Who controls the APC congress committee?

Before Governor Eno defected to the APC, the party in Akwa Ibom State was already composed of competing power blocs. These blocs crystallised around major political figures who entered the party at different stages, including former senator John Akpanudoedehe, who had at some point claimed “ownership” of the APC in the state, former deputy governor Nsima Ekere, former minister of Niger Delta Affairs Umana Okon Umana, former presidential aide Ita Enang, and Senate President Godswill Akpabio, who was the last of the heavyweights to join the APC in 2018 before Mr Eno.

Unlike the PDP in Akwa Ibom, which historically operated under a single leadership structure, the APC functioned as a coalition of rival interests. Integrating these blocs and managing these rival interests has remained one of the most herculean political tasks facing Mr Eno ahead of the 2027 elections.

That complexity is reflected in the composition of the APC’s eight-member Congress Implementation Committee.

The committee is chaired by Enobong Uwah, the Secretary to the Akwa Ibom State Government, with Patrick Umoh, the member representing Ikot Ekpene Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, serving as secretary.

Other members are Frank Archibong, commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs; Nsentip Akpabio, a brother of the Senate President; Uwem Okoko, a state government contractor; Ubokutom Nya, director-general of Senator Akpabio’s 2023 senatorial campaign; Owoidighe Ekpoatai, a former federal lawmaker; and Uno Uno, a serving local government chairman.

The composition of the committee suggests a 5:3 power-sharing ratio between Governor Eno’s bloc and Mr Akpabio’s bloc.

Mr Uwah and four others — Messrs Archibong, Okoko, Ekpoatai, and Uno — are political actors who defected to the APC alongside Governor Eno in 2025. On the other side, Mr Umoh, Mr (Nsentip) Akpabio, and Mr Nyah are loyalists of the Senate president.

Conspicuously absent, however, are representatives of other long-established APC blocs, particularly those linked to Mr Ekere, Mr Umana, and Mr Enang.

For many founding members, the exclusion reinforces the perception that the committee — and by extension the party’s congress process — is being controlled by two dominant blocs, leaving little space for the older members who sustained the APC during its years as an opposition party.

‘Sheathe your swords’ – Eno

The current mistrust contrasts sharply with Governor Eno’s conciliatory tone when he defected to the APC in June last year.

Acknowledging the party’s history of internal division, the governor urged members to embrace reconciliation, stressing that he was not entering the party from a position of vulnerability.

“I want to make it emphatically clear that we are not joining the APC from a position of weakness but from a position of strength. We are bringing values to the APC in Akwa Ibom state,” he said.

Calling for unity, the governor said: “Let us sheath our swords as we begin to work together… Let us put the past bitterness behind us.”

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Nearly eight months later, many founding members say those words now ring hollow, warning that those unresolved grievances could resurface during the February congresses and shape the APC’s fortunes heading into 2027.

The Commissioner for Information, Aniekan Umanah did not respond to calls for comment on how the state government respond to concerns by founding APC members that the dominance of recent defectors in the congress committee suggests an attempt by the Governor Eno bloc to consolidate political control ahead of 2027 at the expense of internal party balance and trust.

PREMIUM TIMES could not immediately reach the Chairman of the APC in Akwa Ibom, Stephen Ntukekpo for his comment.