2019: Akwa Ibom governor declares for second term in office

The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, has made his intention to contest for a second term in office known following his formal declaration at an event that attracted a mammoth crowd in Uyo, the state capital.

“I submit myself for consideration to continue with the good work that I have done and I seek your support for my candidature as governor for second term,” Emmanuel said.
The governor said he was banking on his superior performance to return to the Government House, Uyo, in 2019.
He listed industrialisation as his major achievements in the last three years, stressing that the conglomeration of industrial clusters including toothpick, pencil, syringe, electric metres, coconut factory, peacock paint, fertilizer firms and several kilometres of roads, would recommend him for a re-election.
He said that the Akpabio administration left behind some uncompleted projects including the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel at Ikot Ekpene and the Uyo–Ikot Ekpene Road, stating his administration has been working hard to ensure the completion of those legacy projects of the immediate past era.
“Who said they had completed the Sheraton by Four Points Hotel? It is only today that we are negotiating with Starwood Group for the retainership of the name, which some surreptitiously put up on a building. Is building a hotel?”
He urged the people to rally round him in his quest to sustain the tempo of good governance he introduced in his first term in 2015.
In the same vein, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Onofiok Luke; the former Military Governor of the State, Otuekong Idongesit Nkanga, who chairs the governor’s re-election committee and the state PDP chairman, Obong Paul Ekpo, charged supporters and stakeholders of the PDP to work towards ensuring that the PDP retains Akwa Ibom with Udom Emmanuel, in 2019.

Solidarity messages from neighbouring governors of River State, Nysom Wike and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, assured Governor Emmanuel that he would be returned based on track-record of quality works in the last three years and encouraged the people not to allow external influence to alter the already political arrangement ably directed by the PDP since 1999 in Akwa Ibom.

ANIFIOK UDONQUAK, Uyo