Akpabio reacts as sister-in-law launches attacks

Pat Akpabio, a sister-in-law to the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, has resuscitated the controversy surrounding the many unresolved killings that occurred in Akwa Ibom State when Mr Akpabio was governor of the state.

“For all the people you people have killed when you were the governor (of Akwa Ibom) and those you people have killed now that you are in the Senate, it will never be well with you,” Pat said angrily to Mr Akpabio in a Facebook video she posted on 11 October.

Pat, a pastor and a businesswoman, is married to Mr Akpabio’s brother, Ibanga, who reportedly brought Mr Akpabio from Lagos to Uyo around 1999 and nominated him for the appointment as commissioner in then-Governor Victor Attah’s cabinet, where he grew politically and later became the third civilian governor of Akwa Ibom in 2007. He was elected on the PDP platform.

Many in Akwa Ibom saw Ibanga at the time as the power behind Mr Akpabio’s sudden rise in Akwa Ibom politics.

When Mr Akpabio became governor, he used his influence to get Ibanga elected as the PDP secretary in the oil-rich state.

Many of Mr Akpabio’s relatives, including Ibanga, became powerful and exerted much political influence in the state. They were commonly called the Ukana Ikot Ntuen Cabal, named after Mr Akpabio’s hometown in Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. Many of them also suddenly became wealthy.

The political influence of the once-powerful family began to fade soon after Mr Akpabio completed his second term as governor in 2015.

A crack was noticed in the family in 2023 when Ibanga openly supported Mr Akpabio’s opponent, Emmanuel Enoidem, in that year’s senatorial election for the Akwa Ibom North-West District, which Mr Akpabio won and was subsequently elected as the Senate president. Another of the family leaders, Emem Akpabio, a former Shell employee popularly called the Godfather, became the leader of the 2023 governorship campaign of the candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Bassey Albert.

Before that, Mr Akpabio had lost his re-election bid for the Senate in 2019 when he contested under the APC platform. A former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom, Chris Ekpenyong, the PDP candidate, defeated him.

Several people close to Akpabio’s family told PREMIUM TIMES recently that the family has completely disintegrated. They said selfishness, the greed for money and power, is responsible for the family’s internal fight.

Pat’s Facebook video is the latest in her series of attacks against the Senate president. In it, she portrays Mr Akpabio as unworthy of the people’s trust and vows to challenge him in the 2027 senatorial election.

She said Mr Akpabio betrayed many Akwa Ibom politicians like Umana Okon Umana, a former minister of Niger Delta Affairs; Nsima Ekere, a former APC governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom; Akan Udofia, another former APC governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom; and Mr Albert, the former YPP governorship candidate in the state.

Pat said Mr Akpabio easily forgets the good things others have done for him, and that the Senate president will be disgraced in 2027 if he seeks re-election.

“When you finish, go home. This is your quit notice. Go home and rest; you need to take care of yourself.

“Nigerians don’t know who you are. When they do, they’ll know you are a very wicked man,” she said, advising President Bola Tinubu to be wary of Mr Akpabio.

Pat said Mr Akpabio’s hometown of Ukana Ikot Ntuen has been without power supply for several weeks, suggesting that Mr Akpabio, a ranking federal official, has not brought much development to his community.

She claimed that Mr Akpabio accused her husband, Ibanga, of killing a close political associate and causing him (Akpabio) to lose the 2019 senatorial election. She also claimed that Mr Akpabio accused her husband of running away with his money.

“You know I love you. I don’t hate you. I love you because you are a brother to my husband. I stood by you in 2019 when people wrote all sorts of things against you, did I collect 10 kobo from you? Today, you have the audacity to say that you are the one that made me.”

She dared Mr Akpabio to respond to her allegations and threatened to release more damaging information about the Senate president.

Akpabio reacts

Reacting through his spokesperson, Eseme Eyiboh, Mr Akpabio said Pat ought to file a report with Nigeria’s security agencies instead of taking to Facebook to accuse him of killings.

“Killing is at the heart of our criminal justice administration. So I expect a citizen who is aware of the commission of such a crime to be honest enough and be responsive by reporting or inviting the attention of the appropriate department of state to investigate. The issue of murder is not an issue that you want to use for a political vendetta. The law is very clear that whoever asserts must prove,” Mr Eyiboh said on Monday.

Mr Eyiboh said Mr Akpabio is a “very humble and strong family person”, and that Pat was taking advantage of these “attributes” of the Senate president. He said Mr Akpabio is too busy to pay attention to what his sister-in-law says against him.

“I think she is just doing it for attention. Who is going to give her that attention? The Senate president is very busy.”

PREMIUM TIMES told Mr Eyiboh that these were serious allegations that could damage Mr Akpabio’s reputation.

“It cannot. Because apart from the person who alleges, every other person is aware that those accusations do not exist,” he responded.

Our reporter reminded Mr Eyiboh that there were a lot of unresolved killings in Akwa Ibom when Mr Akpabio was governor and that some people had accused his administration of being responsible for the killings.

“You are aware that the challenge of insecurity is not only in Akwa Ibom, it is national, it is global. You can’t say that Tinubu is the person who is bombing, killing people, using Boko Haram and gunmen. You can’t say so because it is his government. It will also be unfair and uncharitable to say that insecurity or people were killed during Akpabio’s administration. And of course, you know that the insecurity problem is mostly out of this aboriginal question, we have an increase in cult-related activities and drugs,” he responded.

Meanwhile, a UK-based Nigerian, Zion Umoh, has thrown his weight behind Mr Akpabio’s sister-in-law for her accusation against the Senate president.

“History shall be kind to Princess Pat Akpabio for her boldness,” Mr Umoh, an estranged political ally of Mr Akpabio, wrote on Facebook recently.

Mr Umoh has been leading the campaign for Mr Akpabio to be investigated and prosecuted for the several killings that took place in Akwa Ibom during his administration.

In November 2018, some Akwa Ibom leaders, led by a former senator, Anietie Okon, had called on Mr Akpabio’s successor, Udom Emmanuel, to set up a commission of inquiry into the killings.

No street was safe under Akpabio – Ex-governorship candidate

In 2022, James Iniama, an estate surveyor and politician, narrated to PREMIUM TIMES how state agents, during Mr Akpabio’s administration, were after his life immediately after the 2007 governorship election, which he (Iniama) contested as a candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria against Mr Akpabio.

Although he did not mention Mr Akpabio’s name during an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Iniama said Akpabio’s era as governor was the most unsafe in the history of Akwa Ibom.

“From 2007, there is no street in Akwa Ibom State that was safe anymore for residents. There was no business place that was safe for business, the thing that became popular was kidnapping, assassinations, rape. So, that wasn’t anymore a society to live in, and for a wise person the best thing to do is get out of that environment.

“We have to stay alive. If I didn’t stay alive you wouldn’t be talking with me today. I can tell you I knew I was branded the first target for whatever evil that was in their mind,” he said.

Continuing, Mr Iniama said, “You know the number of people who were kidnapped, you know how many of our mothers were murdered and stripped on the streets of Akwa Ibom State? It is something of which this state should be ashamed; we should go to God in repentance.

“How could you possibly strip my mother? Murder my mother, strip her and leave her on the street? My mother? Don’t forget, God had to tell Cain, the blood of your brother is crying from the earth for vengeance. We are a Christian people; there are things that should not be heard of us.”

Mr Iniama said he had filed a suit against the Akwa Ibom State Government, which was finally settled out of court because of the intervention of Mr Akpabio’s successor, Mr Emmanuel.

Mr Akpabio, who was then the minister of Niger Delta Affairs, dismissed Mr Iniama’s remarks as “political shenanigans taken too far”.

He had denied that there were state-sponsored killings and kidnappings in the state during his administration.

There are records of killings. I can unearth them – Journalist

In 2022, a journalist in Uyo faulted Mr Akpabio’s claims that there were no state-sponsored killings when he was governor.

The journalist, Ofonime Honesty, told PREMIUM TIMES, “The records are there. I can unearth them”.

Mr Honesty mentioned the killing of a governorship aspirant, Iniekong Udonwa’s mother, the killing of a PDP chieftain, Paul Inyang and the killing of the paramount traditional ruler of the Ibibio, the Oku Ibom Ibibio, James Obot, as some of the unresolved killings that took place during Akpabio’s era.

“When the mother of a governorship aspirant, Iniekong Udonwa, was kidnapped, I was with my boss back then, John Elijah, who is now a barrister. We were heading to his (Udonwa) residence to interview him when we received a call from one of Iniekong Udonwa’s personal assistants that the man had been shot and his mother kidnapped.

“A couple of days later, we heard the man survived and that the mother was taken to an unknown location, she was murdered and abandoned on the street,” the journalist said.

Mr Honesty said he attended a press conference where Mr Akpabio, after he left office as governor, was confronted by reporters on the killings that took place under his watch.

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Mr Akpabio, according to the journalist, said the killings were carried out by the Niger Delta militants.

The journalist said he too almost became a victim when people he said were agents of the state government came after him because of a critical article he wrote about Mr Akpabio’s wife, Unoma.

“I had to flee Akwa Ibom for a month or so,” he said. “It was even people inside the Government House, Uyo, who told me I should run for my life.”