"There is no local government my husband has not touched" – Akwa Ibom first lady

 

Deaconess Martha Udom Emmanuel who is the first lady of Akwa Ibom state has expressed optimism that her husband will be re-elected as governor in 2019 based on his performance.

Vanguard reports that the first lady cited the crash in the price of food as testament of the good work her husband has done.

Deaconess Emmanuel said the plot by the opposition against her husband will not work as there is no local government that has not felt the good work he has done.

She said: “His good works will speak for him.

“There is no local government that His Excellency, Governor Emmanuel has not done one thing or the other, so people have seen, people that like good things have seen and I think nothing will change. They will not do otherwise.

” Noting the crash in the price of foodstuff particularly garri, from two cups at the rate of N100 to five cups at the rate of N100, she said: “That is just the whole thing. When I launched the campaign ‘Food for All’ in 2016, I made Akwa Ibom people know that no poor person should be denied of his or her staple food.

“When it was so expensive, it became a problem for the people of Akwa Ibom State, so we now went into farming; that was how we went into the planting of cassava with over 100 hectares of land, and when the time of harvesting came, we started processing.

“So I give God the glory because we have been able to achieve that. At least the poorest person in the community can afford garri to eat. And also we encouraged so many of our people to go into farming. Now the consciousness has been created. People have gone back to farming cassava.

“I don’t think we will ever have the issue with garri in Akwa Ibom State as long as God is with us,” she said perhaps unwittingly with the finality of her husband’s name which means, God with us.’’

Meanwhile, Godswill Akpabio, the former governor of Akwa Ibom state and erstwhile minority leader at the Senate, has been called to explain the alleged fraud behind the four-star hotel built by his administration in the state.

The allegation was levelled against him by the incumbent governor, Udom Emmanuel. This came barely a few weeks after Akpabio defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at the Senate.

In a report by PremiumTimes, Governor Udom Emmanuel was quoted saying the hotel project, besides lacking transparency and quality expected of a best practice, is a fraud left incomplete by his predecessor.

Akpabio had previously accused his successor, Udom, of not making the best use of the four-point hotel project by Sheraton.

Udom said while addressing a larger crowd who were present at his second term bid declaration: “They talked about four points by Sheraton. Today, I don’t want to answer them. But let me state, the facts must come out fast and the facts must point to the truth because the truth is constant.

It is just now that we have incorporated a company to negotiate with Starwood for that name four-point by Sheraton. If anybody has ever done that, let him show me the agreement he signed. It is now that we are doing external works in that premises in order to turn it into a hotel. Is building a hotel? Can a building be a hotel?"