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Buhari Didn’t Summon Me To Abuja – Governor Emmanuel

Published

6 years ago

October 19, 2018

Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State who met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa on Thursday, has spoken about the meeting and the concorted allgegations trailing it.

The Akwa Ibom State Governor Emmanuel, in a statement issued by his spokesperson, Ekerete Udoh, on Friday, said the report that he was summoned by President Muhammadu Buhari, was “very petty and pedestrian”.

It was gathered that Police had two days ago, arrested the state’s Commissioner for Environment, Iniobong Essien, for allegedly preventing President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign billboard to be hoisted at a location within the state capital.

Governor Udom who met with President Buhari at the presidential villa Abuja on Thursday, came out from the meeting and refuted report that he was summoned to Abuja by Mr President.

The rebuttal was in response to an attempt by the APC to link the meeting to a recent fight in Uyo between the APC supporters and some state officials and supporters of the PDP over the right to put up thr billboard at a popular market in the city.

The statement by the governor read: “In fact that the news is peddled by members of the APC shows their disrespect for the office of the President and its occupant.

“The presidency of any country is the nation’s top job, with an attendant very busy schedule. It is therefore very infantile to allege that the President of a country like Nigeria will summon a Governor, for the purpose of discussing billboard locations in a state.

“The fact of the matter, is that His Excellency, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, Governor, Akwa Ibom State had requested an audience with the President to discuss important issues of the State, and the President had graciously granted the request. The purpose of the visit was strictly based on the above predicate, and had nothing to do with billboards or other such claptraps.

“It’s our earnest advice that members of the opposition party in Akwa Ibom should try to separate politics from governance and not bring the exalted office of the President of the Republic into disrepute by pushing ludicrous and vile propaganda.”

The Nation newspaper on Friday quoted Governor Emmanuel as telling reporters after his meeting with the president that he would not allow the opposition in the state to distract him from his work.

“At times, some of these things are to distract you but we refuse to be distracted. We play politics of development and our people are seeing that. So, whatever would have tried in anyway to distract us we don’t want to be distracted.

“So, don’t be bothered about that. It is only God who determines what happens the next minute, not man. And no man is God,” the governor is quoted as saying.