The third term bid of the Honourable Emmanuel Ekon in the House of Representatives is stirring disquiet among the chieftains of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in his constituency. INIOBONG EKPONTA in Uyo reports.
Ahead of the 2019 crucial general elections, a huge conflagration is bellowing in the Abak Federal Constituency of Akwa-Ibom state. The crisis at hand has to do with the third term ambition of the Honourable member representing the constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Emmanuel Ekon.
Ekon has already served two terms, and he is seeking a third term in the lower chamber. But the ambition has placed him in conflict with stakeholders of the constituency.
The Federal Constituency is one of the largest in Akwa Ibom, covering three Local Government Areas including Abak, Etim Ekpo and Ika. Within the PDP, on which platform Ekong won the polls in 2011 and 2015, oppositions have emerged and their sing song has been woven around concepts of “equity, justice and fair play.” They have also been urging the party’s stakeholders to “respect the principle of zoning.”
To them, Ekon’s entry into the politics of the Constituency in 2011, has truncated the long standing tradition of “one term” for any candidate to rotating every four years across the three Local Government Areas.
They recalled that “between 1999 and 2003, Hon. Akan Eyo (Etim Ekpo), took the slot and left it for the late Hon. Ezekiel Anaka (Abak), who occupied the seat between 2003 and 2007, while Hon. Ekperikpe Ekpo, took the turn of Ika, between 2007 and 2011”.
Emmanuel Ekon, according to them, took the turn of Etim Ekpo, when the pendulum swung back to Etim Ekpo, in 2011.
However, the emergence of Governor Udom Emmanuel in 2015 altered the status quo, when he picked his Deputy from Abak, because, according to Obong Archibong Essien, a community leader in Abak, “Abak was denied its turn because of the argument that since Abak has already produced the deputy governor, the slot for the House of Representatives should continue in another local government.”
