John Udoedehe, a former minister of state for the Federal Capital Territory, has alleged that the immediate past governor of Akwa Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio, administered fetish oath to politicians in the state to extract absolute loyalty from them during his administration, Premium Times reports.
Udoedehe made the allegation on Saturday, February 11, during a live radio interview on Planet 101.1FM, Uyo, Akwa Ibom state capital.
It was gathered that Udoedehe, who is a former senator from the state, was in the radio studio to continue his media war against the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Ex-minister Udoedehe alleges Akpabio used “fetish oath” to extract loyalty from politicians
However, he diverted in the course of the interview to talk about Senator Akpabio in order to buttress a point that he (Udoedehe) is the only credible opposition leader in the state.
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He said: “None of those who are crossing over from PDP to the APC can challenge Akpabio.
“Akpabio is not like me. You must be under oath because he doesn’t trust anybody. There is no appointment, commissioner, secretary to the state government, governor, deputy governor, you must be on oath. You cannot escape that. You cannot challenge him.”
When asked by the programme host what kind of oath he was referring to, Udoedehe explained that he meant “mbiam”, an Ibibio word for fetish oath.
“That is why they can’t challenge him. They can’t speak ill against Akpabio because of the oath they swore to.
“I don’t do politics of ‘mbiam’ that is why they can betray me.”
“I have those who believe in me. I will speak like (Donald) Trump, and even if I do the unexpected, they will still stand with me.”
But in a swift response, Akpabio’s spokesman, Anietie Ekong, described Udoedehe’s remarks as a “careless talk that shouldn’t be given any prominence”.
Ekong said: “How come those who served under Governor Akpabio as commissioners and SSG but later broke away from him are still alive if it is true that they swore to mbiam?
“What about someone like Umana Umana, the APC governorship candidate in 2015 who worked as SSG under Governor Akpabio? Did he swear to any mbiam? How come he is still alive today despite breaking away from Akpabio? It is because there’s nothing like that, that is why the man is still alive.
“People should know Senator Udoedehe by now. He has said so many things about other people, and some of these things are unprintable.”
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Udoedehe had quit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the then ACN in the run up to the 2011 general elections, where he was given the ticket to challenge former Governor Godswill Akpabio’s re-election bid.
He is a former chairman of Uyo local government and won the election to represent Uyo at the Senate at the return of democracy in 1999.
He was also Akpabio’s campaign manager in 2006 when the latter was running for governor.
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