After backlash, Akwa Ibom govt in moves to defend Udom’s declaration of successor

The Akwa Ibom State Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Ini Ememobong, has described as false insinuations that Governor Udom Emmanuel has categorically endorsed the Commissioner for Lands and Water Resources, Pastor Umo Enoh, as his successor.

Ememobong, who spoke on Tuesday while addressing journalists at the secretariat of the state council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), expressed concerns following wide spread condemnation of his boss’s actions of presenting Enoh to the state as his preferred candidate for the 2023 governorship election.

Ememobong said what the governor did was display a revelation from God as a channel and not an admission of producing a successor as being touted.

”If biologically, traditionally and even in churches people are interested in succession, there is no way that anybody will say it is absolutely impossible that in politics, people should not be interested in succession.

“Therefore, His Excellency is interested in succession. The truth is that over time, it is the people that have been calling on him to name who his preferred successor is, and the Governor had said that he will not name his successor, that he will only reveal what God has revealed to him.

“So people have been pressuring him to at least, show a direction, and now he has shown direction that has been revealed to him, he is being villified.

Read also: Akwa Ibom Gov, Emmanuel, names successor

“In this case, the governor only acted as a medium. He has become the medium, and not the source.

“So if anybody has issue with the preferred successor, you challenge the source of his revelation and not the medium.

“And he has not admitted anywhere that he has produced a successor. It is an act of humility for the governor to tell the whole world that his successor will not be his choice,” the Information Commissioner said.

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