By Odo Ogenyi, Uyo
Mr Mike Enyong, who claimed to be the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom,has said he went for a parallel guber primary last month to ensure that the party would have a candidate in next year’s election.
According to Enyong his recent actions would be the only reason the party would be on the ballot papers next year following the myriads of court cases against the gubenatorial candidate of the party certified the national leadership, Mr Umoh Enoh.
He told neswmen in Uyo yesterday that his opting for a pararell governorship primary where he emerged with over 2000 votes from 2744 statutory delegates was based on his deep understanding of the current electoral act and the constitution of the country.
“My adversaries looking for every opportunity to blackmail and tarnish my hard earned reputation are doing so because they know I have beaten them to their game. I am waiting for July 15th for the people to understand that I am the rightful candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party in Akwa ibom state.
“The court had asked for status quo ante bellum in the case brought before it over the fraudulent selection of some people as Adhoc delegates but they went ahead and used them to pick their preferred aspirant but I understood the implication of being part of the sham and opted for the primaries with statutory delegates with the INEC as observers and officials from the national secretariat of our dear party.” He explained.
The National Assembly member urged those working against him to rather pull their energies into his drive to ensure that Akwa ibom state remained in the grip of PDP beyond 2023.
He maintained that he should be celebrated stressing that the May 18th Abuja High Court order on adhoc delegates with status quo ante bellum automatically left the party with no adhoc delegates to conduct governorship primaries for the party.
“That order still subsists as we speak today, I am the rightful candidate of the party and the next governor of Akwa ibom state.” He maintained.
Speaking on his recent empowerment being distorted by detractors with fake people paraded on social media as disappointed beneficiaries, the lawmaker explained that every genuine beneficiary captured in his list has been empowered with promised N1Million each.
“I am already looking forward to having another round of empowerment to spread more democratic dividends to greater number of our people, anybody claiming not to have received my empowerment after the last outing is either not part of the original list or failed to meet the guidelines streamlined for the beneficiaries to follow up and cash out the money. I am owing nobody.” He explained.
Enyong further described as laughable the trending video of a youth alleging that he got a paltry N1000 after voting as a delegate in the primaries that produced him as a candidate saying that he can’t even give beggars on the street N1000.
” I don’t know him, they are using him to blackmail me, he is not part of the exercise, go and ask all statutory delegates that participated to get a clearer picture.” He concluded.
