PDP chieftain who ran against Akpabio in 2023 dumps his party for Akpabio’s APC

Emmanuel Enoidem, a former national legal adviser to the PDP, is set to defect to the ruling APC today, Friday, 23 January, in Akwa Ibom State.

Mr Enoidem, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), will be officially received into the APC by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom by 3 p.m. today at Etim Ekpo, where Mr Enoidem hails from, according to information on the Akwa Ibom State Government Facebook page.

Mr Enoidem contested and lost the 2023 Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial election as the PDP candidate against Mr Akpabio, who was the APC candidate.

Mr Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom, was not the Senate president at the time; he was seeking re-election to the Senate after losing the 2019 senatorial election to then-PDP candidate Chris Ekpenyong, a former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom.

Mr Akpabio’s successor as governor, Udom Emmanuel, had wanted Mr Enoidem to be the 2019 PDP candidate for the Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial election, but the lawyer refused to stand in the election against Mr Akpabio, who had previously appointed him as a commissioner in Akwa Ibom.

Although he was among the lead campaigners for Mr Eno’s election in 2023 under the PDP platform, Mr Enoidem had refused to defect with the governor to the APC in June last year.

‘Akpabio has no history of loyalty, not to God, not to any man’

In January 2023, some weeks before the senatorial election of that year, Mr Enoidem told PREMIUM TIMES that it was in Mr Akpabio’s character to bring down allies so that he could achieve political dominance.

“Because Akpabio doesn’t want strong people, when he wanted to leave the government, before he handed over, he said that those of us who were in his (Akpabio’s) government should not last more than one year in Udom Emmanuel’s government,” Mr Enoidem said in the exclusive interview which gave a rare insight into the power politics in Akwa Ibom during the Akpabio era.

Mr Enoidem was the commissioner for Housing & Urban Renewal from 2013 to 2014 under Mr Akpabio. Mr Akpabio later appointed him as commissioner for Special Duties from 2013 to 2015.

As a member of Mr Akpabio’s kitchen cabinet, he was one of the most powerful commissioners at that time.

Mr Enoidem told PREMIUM TIMES that, besides supporting Mr Akpabio to become governor in 2007, he also bought the PDP nomination form for Mr Akpabio to run for the Senate in 2015.

Before he was appointed a commissioner, Mr Enoidem was the PDP treasurer in Akwa Ibom from 2001 to 2007.

He later served in Governor Emmanuel administration as commissioner for Investment, Commerce and Industry from 2015 to 2016.

Mr Enoidem said when Governor Emmanuel refused to give in to Mr Akpabio’s pressure to drop him and others from his cabinet, Mr Akpabio devised another means by pretending he wanted him to become the PDP national legal adviser.

He said it was the same Mr Akpabio who mobilised the South-south regional bloc against him when he resigned as commissioner to contest for the position of the PDP legal adviser.

“Akpabio went and conspired with (then-House of Reps member) Emmanuel Ekon that the APC has a SAN as their legal adviser, how can they bring Enoidem that is not a SAN, what if there is a case between PDP and APC? They took the story to (Governor) Wike (of Rivers State), but Udom Emmanuel said no, that that is his choice and that there is no provision in the PDP constitution that you must be a SAN before you become the party’s legal adviser.

“That was how I became the party’s legal adviser,” he said.

Mr Enoidem rose through the legal profession and later attained the rank of a SAN.

“Akpabio has no history of loyalty, not to God, not to any political party or any man,” Mr Enoidem had said in the interview. “In a free and fair election, I will win Godswill Akpabio 10 times.”

Big win for Gov Eno

Mr Enoidem’s defection to the APC is considered a big win for Governor Eno, who has been fighting hard to destabilise the PDP in the oil-rich state since he (Eno) defected from it to the APC in June last year. On Mr Eno’s orders, a police team is permanently stationed in front of the PDP state secretariat in Uyo to prevent the party’s authentic leadership from accessing the facility.

Osondu Ahirika, Mr Eno’s aide on re-orientation, said in an article that the lawyer’s defection is a “gold medal” for the governor.

Anietie Ekong, Mr Akpabio’s media aide, stated on Thursday in a Facebook post that Mr Enoidem’s defection to the APC should serve as a political lesson to many.

“Don’t carry politics on your head like gala. Don’t abuse somebody because of politics because, as they say, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies,” he stated.

“Today, politicians across the length and breadth of Akwa Ibom State are falling over themselves to join the same party they demonised him (Akpabio) for.”

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Governor Eno led Mr Enoidem and others on a “pre-defection meeting” with Mr Akpabio on Thursday night at the Senate president’s country home in Ukana, Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom.

“I want to thank you for connecting me back to my former boss. We may have had political disagreements, but Senator Akpabio has remained my boss, and even before today, I had told you I would work for him to return to the Senate,” Mr Enoidem reportedly told Governor Eno at the meeting.

The PDP is yet to speak on Mr Enoidem’s planned defection to the APC.