No fewer than 37,874 members of opposition political parties in Akwa Ibom State were, on Friday, received into the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP by the state governor, Pastor Umo Eno.
Receiving the returnees who hitherto were members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Young Progressives Party, YPP, New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, and Social Democratic Party, SDP, among other political parties, the governor cautioned them against disrespect to leaders, especially at the centre.
“We welcome you sincerely into our party. The PDP is not a party that insults leaders, as you come back, one of the things I want you to drop is an attack on leaders. For example, the President of the country, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. We have to show him optimum respect and support.
“The PDP I run doesn’t attack leaders. We have to support leaders and not fight them because as a pastor, I am trained to respect people. We must show the character of humility, compassion, and respect to constituted authorities. That we will continue to do as a party, “the governor stated.
Speaking further while addressing leaders, elders, youths and other stakeholders of the opposition parties at the Ibom Hall ground in Uyo on Friday, Eno said he could not fight Tinubu, adding that under no circumstances would he work at cross purposes with the centre as doing so would only lead to a strained relationship between the state which depends on the centre for monthly cash for its development.
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According to him, such unhealthy rivalry would only put his administration at loggerheads with the Federal Government with attendant drain in resources that could ultimately impinge negatively on the development of the state and the people as articulated in his administration’s ‘Arise Agenda’.
He said: “I cannot fight President Tinubu, we cannot fight the centre. We have only one President of Nigeria and we must not attack or insult him. We will not use Akwa Ibom’s money to fight the centre because if you fight the centre, the centre can no longer hold.
“You can’t fight the person that gives you money and resources and expect him to continue to give you. If we use Akwa Ibom money to create trouble with the centre and use it to travel to Abuja every day, it is the people that will suffer.”
Assuring that since assumption of office in the last 10 months, he has utilised the resources from the centre effectively to fix physical infrastructure including roads, provision of social services – education, health, gratuity payment to retired civil servants and taking care of the aged, the governor maintained that such robust relationship with the centre cannot be truncated by the sentiment of politics.
He, therefore, enjoined the returnees to acclimatise themselves in the PDP fold as equal stakeholders while directing the State PDP Chairman, Elder Aniekan Akpan, to ensure equal rights and privileges for them in their new political home.
