Umo Eno, Governor of Akwa Ibom State, has mandated all his commissioners and appointees to either defect with him to the All Progressives Congress (APC) or resign from their positions.
The governor gave the directive on Thursday during the state executive council meeting in Uyo.
This development confirms what has been circulating as rumours on social media for several weeks about his defection to the APC.
“It’s no more news that I’m moving party, if you don’t know that by now, I don’t know what else you know,” the governor said.
He informed the commissioners and appointees that while they are under no obligation to join him in the APC, they cannot remain in his cabinet if they belong to another party.
He made it clear: “You are entirely free to choose not to join me, but you cannot continue to serve in my state executive council if you do.”
“So, you better just be prepared to resign the day I announce that I’m moving because you are an appointee and your loyalty is to me. You can’t be in my cabinet and play anti-party, it’s not a threat, it is what it is. I won’t beg you to come, you should normally not even expect it,” he told the appointees.
The governor said that although he loves the PDP, he cannot guarantee a seamless election victory in the party due to its ongoing internal crisis.
“I love the PDP, I want to stay in the PDP, but clearly, I don’t have a road map to guarantee that I’ll be able to have a smooth sail in the elections, not because we won’t win elections. In this state today, with the work that all of us have done, even if we contest on a zero party, we will win this election. There’s no doubt about it. We’ve worked very hard, but we know that at the national level that our party is not coming together.
“Every day, secretary this and that, and so you take your form, they send it to INEC, and then you run all the elections, you perhaps win the elections and just on technical grounds, because the wrong person signed your form, you lose everything,” Eno said.
