Akpabio Planted, Nurtured Kidnapping, Says Orji

By Emmanuel Ugwu, Umuahia

The Senate Minority Leader and immediate past governor of Akwa-Ibom state, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has been asked to be honest and accept his role in the emergence of kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria.

The challenge was thrown at Akpabio on Sunday by Senator Theodore Orji in a statement signed by his media adviser, Mr. Don Norman Obinna, saying that the former governor of Akwa Ibom state could never run away from his shadow given the ignominious role he played in making kidnapping to take root in the Nigeria.

Akpabio had, during the debate on the joint Committee Report on Police Affairs, National Security and Intelligence disparaged Abia state, saying that the heinous crime of kidnapping was pioneered in God’s Own State during the administration of Senator Orji.

But Orji said that he has patiently waited to no avail for the Senate Minority Leader to retract the “erroneous and misleading” statement, more so as the Abia state government had already pointed out the historical and factual inaccuracy of Akpabio’s mischievous statement.

 The Abia Central Senator said that he was aware of the  Akwa Ibom Senator’s“ susceptibility to grandstand”, adding that the “dull-witted statement was motivated by guilt and designed to obfuscate his alleged introduction of and involvement in kidnapping for ransom, political purposes.”

According to Orji it was on record that Akpabio was accused of involvement in kidnapping as contained in a statement “prepared in statement by the President and Representatives of Ibibio People’s Union, Inc, Thompson Essien, before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights On “U.S Policy Toward Nigeria”.

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