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| Aquilla OtoObong Akpan. Special Assistant to Akwa-Ibom State Governor on Students Matters. |
There
are strong indications in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, that the thirty-one
million Naira promised Akwa Ibom students to stage a solidarity rally for the
state Governor, Udom Emmanuel, may have grown wings.
And
the Governor’s Special Assistant on Students Matters, Aquilla OtoObong Akpan,
may know where the money may be hiding.
While
many accounts claim that she may have run away with the money, others state
that Governor Emmanuel may have made a bogus promise and did not give her the
money to share to the students, resulting in the mayhem unleashed by aggrieved
students around Government House, Uyo, and adjoining streets on Thursday.
The
botched solidarity rally which descended into wanton break down in law and
order, and touts and youths joined the protest, bringing vehicular movement and
business activities to a standstill. Innocent commuters were disposed of
valuables, vehicles were vandalised and many students sustained different
levels of injuries.
Yesterday,
the Akwa Ibom State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) released a
statement, signed by the state chairman, Iniobong Okopido. calling the rally
“shameful and outrageous” and blaming Governor Udom Emmanuel of “refusing to
honour his pledge to pay the students N31 million for marching on the streets
of Uyo for him.”
Okopido
stated:,”The governor has shown for the umpteenth time that he is not only
devious and deceitful, but is bereft of any iota of honour. We ask these
students to take all legal steps, including a protest march to government
house, to recover their money.”
The
students bemoaned their treatment in the hands of the governor, stating that
Udom Emmanuel has shown “flagrant disregard to students, education in the state
and the future of the youths of Akwa Ibom State.”
The
APC statement said that faced with “a flagging campaign and facing an imminent
defeat at the polls, Udom Emmanuel routinely pays youths, women and even
cultists to walk the streets, wave leaves and carry banners in an apparent show
of solidarity with him. In many of his rallies, hired women in uniform are
always abandoned at the campaign grounds, without as little as a bus fare back
home.”
Okopido
added: “It took the skilful intervention of the police to avert bloodbath
yesterday… We call on our former governors and eminent citizens of our dear
state to rise in unison and condemn… this."
Yesterday,
faced with mounting suspicious and accusations, Aquilla resurfaced, stating
that: "students who came for the solidarity march were duly accredited
according to their various institutions. The sum of 31 million naira was given
to the students by the Governor, with the instruction that it should be shared
per local government, making it a million naira each."
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