By; PATRICK TITUS, Uyo
Unsettled by Senator Bassey Albert Akpan’s growing public acceptability and popularity, as displayed at a rally in Eket last week, the camp of the governor’s preferred aspirant, Umo Eno, has been thrown into disarray.
Available information revealed that since March 5, when youth of Eket Senatorial District held a reception rally in honour of Senator Akpan a.k.a OBA, handlers of Eno’s campaign have been in frozen mood.
The confusion in their camp, it was gathered, stemmed from the fact that despite coordinated attacks and efforts to demarket OBA, he grows stronger and increasingly accepted by the day.
OBA’s popularity is said to be worrisome as Eno still suffers genuine acceptability, despite the huge sum of money reportedly spent on sponsored adoption shows.
“We have done everything possible to rubbish OBA, but he keeps getting popular among the electorate. Surprisingly, despite our public show of endorsements, our man is still not genuinely accepted. It worries us”, one of Umo Eno’s campaign crews unconsciously in one the political gatherings in Uyo.
More facts emerged that, a meeting was convened on Wednesday -March 9, 2022 at the Ewet Housing residence of a top local contractor who is very close to the government, with the aim of strategising on how to counter OBA’s popularity.
The meeting had all the council chairmen in attendance and was coordinated by the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Frank Archibong.
At the said meeting, all the chairmen were given a matching order to return home and plan an immediate rally that can equal or possibly surpass the one that hosted OBA in Eket.
The planned knee-jerk reaction is meant to mobilise extensively for a counter rally soon, as a way of creating a false impression of Eno’s popularity.
The meeting agreed that the rally should also hold in Eket, at the same venue, with youths promised N3,000 each to lure them out to the venue.
“We have to do something. We just can’t let OBA get away with such popularity. Imagine, despite the fact that we even fixed MPM meetings across Eket Senatorial District that same day as a way of reducing attendance, the crowd was still intimidating“, source said.
The plan was detailed to even the expected speakers at the rally and the issues to be addressed. For instance, it was agreed that the former Chief of Staff (COS) to Gov Udom Emmanuel, Mr Ephraim Inyangeyen and former Senior Special Assistant of Mobilisation, Elder Ekefre, must be taken to the cleaners.
Additionally, prospective speakers were also briefed on how to twist OBA’s earlier widely publicised speech out of context, particularly the “who born dog” phrase.
Unconfirmed information emanating from the meeting alleged that each local government is expected to contribute N2million towards the rally while the money should be deducted direct from the joint account, usually chaired by Frank Archibong.
