Akwa Ibom APC Raises the Alarm over State Govt’s Employment Scam

• Another aide of Emmanuel resigns

Deborah Orji

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State has raised the alarm over an employment scam by the state government aimed at using it to regularise the long-concluded employment of Governor Udom Emmanuel’s kinsmen from his Awa clan in Onna Local Government Area and to deceive unsuspecting job-seekers and members of the public that there are genuine vacancies in the state civil service.

There also appears to be no respite for the governor as the mass resignation of his aides has continued unabated.

APC raised the alarm in a press statement signed by its State Publicity Secretary, Mr. Nkereuwem Enyongekere following the recent advertisement of vacancies in the civil service by the state government.

The APC said in the press release that the whole scam was a panicky measure by Governor Udom Emmanuel to regularize the illegal employment he has given his kinsmen, some of whom were employed over a year ago, realizing that he will lose the 2019 governorship election.

The APC maintained that the scam, which it described as wicked, became manifest with the total shutdown of the job application portal by the state government a day after it was opened and the denial of printout to applicants, even within that brief period, to prevent them from having any evidence of application.

The party accused Emmanuel of unilaterally employing his kinsmen into the civil service by directives to the Chairman of the Civil Service Commission without following due process in the past one year.

The party said that with the reality of election defeat staring him in the face, Governor Emmanuel has set up a special team headed by a permanent secretary to regularize the illegal employment.

Meanwhile, there also appears to be no respite for the embattled governor as the mass resignation of his aides has continued unabated.

The latest to tender his resignation, it was gathered is the Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, Mr. Joe Iniodu.

A source close to the Akwa Ibom State Government House said Iniodu tendered his resignation letter within the week due to what he termed irreconcilable differences with the administration which have hampered the smooth performance of his duties as a media aide to the governor.

According to the source who is privy to the contents of the letter of resignation, Iniodu is said to have profusely thanked Governor Emmanuel for the opportunity to serve as his aide but said recent political developments have made it impossible for him to continue to function in that capacity.

Iniodu is said to have complained that as media aides to the governor, there was an unwritten code that to be seen to have done well, they must abuse Senator Godswill Akpabio, a task he was not willing to lend himself to. He is reported to have said that rather than promote the achievements of Governor Emmanuel, the abuse of Akpabio had taken the centre stage, a function he could not perform.

The former media aide is said to have told the governor that it would be against his conscience to abuse Akpabio or work against his re-election as Senator representing Akwa Ibom North West senatorial district.

Another former aide of the Governor, Mr. Mfon Udeme who was recently shot in a failed assassination attempt, had revealed that about 200 aides of the governor would resign their appointment following the imminent defeat of the Governor in next year’s poll.

Governor Emmanuel has suffered mass resignation from his government since last year with hardly any month passing without hordes of aides quitting his government.

It is expected that more aides would quit in the coming months.