YPP Candidate Says A’Ibom South Senatorial Ambition Not against Zoning
Okon Bassey in Uyo
The Young Progressives Party (YPP) Candidate for Akwa Ibom South (Eket) Senatorial District, Mr. Ephraim Inyageyen, has said that his entrance into the race is not against any zoning formula in the district.
Fielding questions from journalists in Uyo at the weekend, Inyangeyen reasoned that his decision to contest the senatorial seat assumed to have been zoned to Ikot Abasi Federal Constituency is in order.
The YPP senatorial candidate who was a former Commissioner for Works in the state argued that there has never been a proper zoning arrangement in the senatorial district.
He said: “When they do zoning, some people are excluded. In 1999, Mr. Udoma Udo Udoma contested against Mr. Joe Mark from Eket. Udo Udoma defeated Joe Mark. In 2003 when Udo Udoma came back, Mrs. Ufot Ekaette, a lady from Eket married to an Onna man contested against him.
“The question to ask is if Ufot had defeated Udo Udoma at the primaries of the PDP, would they have taken it from her to give to Udo Udoma. The answer is no. So there was no zoning.
“When in 2007, Ufot returned to contest, Mma Esuene contested, Nduese Essien contested, Nelson Effiong contested from Oron, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, the present SSG, contested, Esio Oqungudo contested. My question again is; if there was zoning, would anybody from Oron have contested? The answer again is no. So there was no zoning.
“What we had was a rotation. Whoever takes it, when you finish it will go to the next federal constituency district.”
According to him, it was only after Ikot Abasi and Eket Federal Constituencies had finished their two-term senatorial slots each, that the slot naturally went to Oron Federal Constituency; hence there nobody contested against them from the other two federal constituencies.
He noted that since Udoma Udo Udoma left the senate, Eket senatorial district never had a good representation in the red chamber, hence his aspiration to go and speak for the senatorial district.
For the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), he said it has lost the moral right to talk about zoning of political offices once it picked it presidential candidate from the north.
“Let me emphatically say that PDP has shot itself in the leg when it couldn’t do zoning in Uyo. Etinan has had a shot in the governorship. Uyo has had their turn. So if they were talking about equity, the governorship in PDP should have been zoned to Itu/Ibiono federal constituency. And if they failed in doing that they should shut up and not talk about zoning.
“PDP should be silent over zoning. When the presidency of Nigeria, agreed by all the 17 southern governors was supposed to come to the south, PDP couldn’t, at the highest level where they are supposed to show example, allow that presidency to come to the south.
“The north takes it back and now they are talking about zoning the senatorial ticket. What are you micro-zoning when you couldn’t zone the presidency that has all the powers to change things.
“Today, Governor Nyesom Wike said that the south has been cheated and people are insulting him. I stand totally in support of what Wike is doing in PDP.
“He is speaking the truth. The PDP cannot be talking about equity. You keep the chairman of the party; you keep the presidential candidate that had been agreed that should come to the south. There is an error in zoning in PDP; they shouldn’t talk about it.”
