By Umoh-Obong Kingsley
he Executive Director of Airworthiness and Standards of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Engr. Ita Awak has vowed never to do anything to support the development of the Maintenance, Repairs and Overhaul facilities at the Akwa Ibom International Airport.
The former Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State, Engr. Ita Awak, has also broken his silence on the mismanagement of state funds by former Governor Godswill Akpabio, alleging that pathological hatred and monumental betrayals characterized that administration.
Engr. Awak on a Saturday breakfast show on Planet Radio, Community Views, said he was an APC chieftain, and would rather wait till an APC candidate emerges as Governor, before he partners on the airport.
On the committee headed by the progenitor of the airport and former Governor of the State, Obong Victor Attah, who recently submitted its report to Governor Udom Emmanuel, Engr. Awak raged with fury that he was not interested and was not aware.
“Well I don’t know about whatever Governor Udom Emmanuel and Obong Victor Attah are doing concerning the MRO at Akwa Ibom International Airport, I am not in PDP. As Executive Director of Airworthiness at the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, I am waiting to see if my good friend Nsima Ekere will become Governor, so we can support him on the MRO”
Engr Awak, who recently published on his social media account, on the corruption and fraud engulfing the Ibom Tropicana Entertainment project, said that he attacked Akpabio on the Tropicana because of his commitment to accountability by government officials.
According to him, “it is a lesson for every public officer, to know that no matter how long it takes, the stupid decisions you took in power will come back to you.”
He revealed that Sen. Akpabio was running a government of cabal and nepotism, and pledged commitment to support someone who will humanize governance.
“We had an opportunity during Akpabio’s era, but squandered that opportunity. Our commitment is to humanity and not to any person. Akpabio didn’t perform as governor, he wasted all our resources.”
Engr. Awak who also confessed that his party took autocratic decisions during the just concluded primaries in the State, however advised the affected aspirants to accept the party unilateral decisions in good faith.
He disclosed that he and most faithful in Eket senatorial district all supported Otu Ita Toyo for Senate seat, but the party, he said, decided to give the ticket of the party to Senator Nelson Effiong who is the incumbent senator.
He said this is why Mr. Victor Antai who actually bought form for the Senate seat, was in turn given the House of Representatives ticket by the APC in Oron federal constituency.
“I am advising the aspirant who was denied ticket in Oron by the APC, Robinson Edumoh that party has the right to give anybody its ticket. Since party in its wisdom has taken the decision to give the ticket to Victor Antai, he has no choice but to accept it. Party is supreme”
Recently, Ita Awak on his facebook account had alleged that, “It was the Annang chap called Godswill Obot Akpabio that began and ensured this evil exclusion some ten years ago in 2007; and he did this even after an Oro man, in the person of Chief Otu Ita Toyo, had bent over backwards to help him, against all odds, to emerge governor in 2007.
“Long before the disaster called Godswill Obot Akpabio happened to Akwa Ibom State and people, the core political leadership of the State used to be made up of Ibibio, Annang and Oro people. However, when this chap became governor, this changed. For the eight years Akpabio reigned, Annang was governor; Ibibio was deputy governor, SSG, Speaker AKHA, and Chairman of the Ruling Party.
“The cruel hand that Godswill Akpabio dealt the Oro people, the pathological hatred that misguided him to enact a historic and monumental betrayal of the Oro ethnic group in Akwa Ibom State leaves an indelible, evergreen and painful scar in the heart and consciousness of Oro natives that will mar the political relationship between the Annang and Oro for decades to come.
“Lessons from human history and my glimpse into the operation of these divine laws assures me that the evil that Godswill Obot Akpabio ill-advisedly used the privileges and powers of the exalted office of the Governor to do against the Oro people shall not last for too long. It cannot be fair to visit on the Annang the hatred that Akpabio visited on the Oro ethnic group.”
