For some hours now, the social media has become agog and inundated with seemingly wild trepidation, consequent upon the irrational outburst of the immediate past chairman of Eket local government area, Mr. Aniekan Willie Akpan.

First and foremost, I appreciate the fact that independent commentators on contemporary issues are voicing out their concerns and demanding a response from the Akwa Ibom government to these featherless allegations.

Of noteworthy is the fact that some adventurers of APC are grabbing the opportunity as a campaign tool and impugning upon the integrity of the governor. As an individual, I’ll be delighted for the Udom Emmanuel led administration to clear the air being suffocated by this known Trojan horse called Aniekan Akpan.

Before we dabble into throttling each other’s throats, we need to recalibrate, for once, to know the subject matter specialist involved here.

That begs the question: who’s Aniekan Willie Akpan? Aniekan Akpan is an Okon-Eket born politician who was formally the Chapter Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of Eket before he skidded to the then ANC when his bid to become Eket local government chairman crash-landed, and he was made the State party Chairman while rooting for Hon. Akpan Udoeghe for governor against Chief Godswill Akpabio.

After the gubernatorial election of 2011 election which saw the then incumbent governor Akpabio emerge the winner,and Udoeghe became bent on taking the case to the tribunal, Aniekan Akpan swiftly played the Judas Iscariot by stabbing Hon Akpan Udoeghe at the back. I need not tell you that Akpan went and negotiated for his stomach before announcing on both radio and TV that Udoeghe had no case as he lost the election to Akpabio.

For playing this turncoat-in-chief, Aniekan Akpan was appointed the caretaker chairman of Eket as a reward. As all the caretaker committees were dissolved, Akpan contested as chairman this time round and ‘won’. I need not exact here that Mr. Akpan served more than four years as chairman after stabbing his friend, boss, and governorship candidate, Mr Udoeghe at the back.

During the search for commissioners and other sensitive positions to be filled for the Udom’s administration, Aniekan Akpan had come forward with his outlandish proposals, one of which was for him to become a commissioner with a sensitive portfolio. He was, however, asked to wait for a while as he had just come out of office as a local government chairman.

Reports have it that Akpan threatened hell and brimstone should his proposals not be given urgent consideration. In one of the meetings with PDP stakeholders in the state, he was said to have been fumed, heckled anyone who made suggestions he deemed antithetical to his egocentric proposals, and he later stormed out of the meeting.

Recently, rumors held the clouds sway that Aniekan Akpan had broached the APC gubernatorial candidate of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Umana Okon Umana, with monumental proposals which included two billion Naira (N2 billion) and recommendations for appointments by President Buhari into a board in the federal level before earning his (Akpan’s) backing in the appeal court and election rerun against Governor Udom Emmanuel.

Suffice it to state here that Umana had welcomed the move but expressed skepticism as Mr. Akpan’s sincerity was seriously in question. In order to clear the burden of doubt in Umana’s mind and get his money and recommendations, Akpan had to go on the radio to attack Governor Udom Emmanuel with a scandalous and spurious accusation of receiving a monthly security vote of two billion Naira.

At the time this report was going to the press, Aniekan Akpan was holding a close door meeting with Umana Umana and other APC stakeholders in Uyo to collect his booty.

Akpan, known as an enigmatic and egomaniac fair-weather politician who became chairman of Eket through backstabbing, is at it again.

With Akpan as the helmsman in charge of Eket Local Government Area for more than four years, and Eket, known as the most cleanest and beautiful city in Akwa Ibom during Chief Samuel Edohoeket and Emmanuel Udoh’s tenure, suddenly turned into a ghost town during Akpan’s regime.

No potholes were filled; gallops, erosions menace that occasioned many accidents were the
rules rather than the exceptions. Salaries of workers in the council were diverted for personal use. Refuse dumps in various locations became mountainous, wild grass then overlapped and adorned the streets.

One basic achievement of Mr. Akpan’s tenure was the creation of multiple fraudulent task force committees to coerce motor bike riders and market women. These hooligans, laced with Akpan’s cult boys, who terrorized market women and the bike riders known as Akauke (or Okada riders).

In many occasions, given that these illegal task force committees had various nomenclatures, so were their tickets and heads who reported to Aniekan
Akpan directly.

In various occasions, you would have to pay for the same ticket to different groups in a day or your bike was confiscated if you’re lucky not to be brutalized and or killed. A case in point is that of a 28 year old Victor Nyangah, a father of two, who was confronted by these monsters.

Victor had an old woman on the bike and was stopped by Aniekan Akpan’s tickets collectors. Victor told them he’d already paid for the tickets, but they insisted that he must pay again or his bike would be seized. As they tried to force him off his bike with little resistance, one of them brought out a dagger and stabbed Victor in the chest multiple times.

He later died in the hospital. When Victor’s father threatened a lawsuit, Aniekan Akpan
called Victor’s wife and agreed to pay her five hundred thousand Naira. But after giving her N200,000, he refused to give her remaining N300,000 balance, despite several approaches by Victor Nyangah’s widow. That is one of the cases for now.

While we wait and believe that the Mr Udom Emmanuel led government will respond to this fabricated and fallacious allegation of a known political harlot, Judas of our time, and a celebrated political Trojan Horse in the person of Aniekan Akpan, we should not hesitate to ask him of his achievements in more than four good years as Chairman of Eket Local
government council.

Is Aniekan Willie Akpan a man to be taken seriously??

To be continued

Petes Ikpe is an independent observer and socio-political analyst of Akwa
Ibom origin