Akwa Ibom State governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, has said that the People Democratic Party (PDP) has not endorsed any presidential aspirant.
The governor stated this while responding to reports claiming that the party had picked him as the vice presidential candidate to the former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido.
In a statement signed by Senior Special Assistant on Media, and Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Ekerete Udoh, the governor said Akwa Ibom state is ready and willing to support whoever emerges as the party’s presidential candidate.
He also promised that he will deploy the party’s apparatus in the state to work for the success of the PDP.
“Our attention has been drawn to the banner headline story in the Midweek Global Concord newspaper dated Wednesday 14th-Thursday 15th, February 2018 with the above headline.
“Ordinarily, we would have ignored the said story as a product of bar room gossip from a lazy reporter whose capacity to invent and manufacture false stories supersedes his skills as a conscientious reporter, but given the weight of the falsehood the reporter had peddled, we are constrained to state as follows:
“The story in its entirety is false. The PDP Presidential hopeful, Alhaji Sule Lamido, during his courtesy call on Governor Udom Emmanuel on Monday, February 12, 2018, never offered a Vice Presidential slot to Governor Udom Emmanuel neither was such an issue ever discussed or solicited.
“Governor Udom Emmanuel never endorsed the Presidential hopeful, Alhaji Sule Lamido. He, in the usual tradition, referred to him as a “presidential hopeful” and told him in clear and unambiguous terms that power belongs to God and that God alone determines whom He gives power to.
“As a loyal party man, the governor had emphasized that the party’s apparatus in the State will work for the success of the person who would eventually emerge the presidential candidate of the PDP.
“He went on to state that we, in Akwa Ibom State are known to give 100 percent support to whoever may have emerged as our presidential candidate.
“It is therefore, disingenuous and utterly malicious for a reporter to concoct and peddle falsehood of such magnitude.
“Governor Udom Emmanuel has earned the trust of the good people of Akwa Ibom State through the spectacular achievements he has recorded in the almost three years that he has been on the saddle – a fact that even the Adviser to President Buhari on Political Affairs, Senator Babafemi Ojodu- a APC stalwart himself acknowledged when he devoted a whopping 32 pages in the Mid Term Report he authored, showering praises on Governor Udom Emmanuel for his achievements.
“On Tuesday- February 13, 2018, inside the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Governor Udom Emmanuel was decorated with 2017 Integrity and Service Programme (ISP) Award by the Secretary to the Federal Government, Mr. Boss Mustapha, a testament to the acknowledged bona fides of the governor as man of integrity and transparency.
“The Governor has been endorsed by key Stakeholders across the three Senatorial Districts for a second term and come next year, the people of Akwa Ibom State will again repose their faith and fidelity in Governor Udom Emmanuel and will re-elect him to a second term in office.
“It is therefore, laughable for a reporter to maliciously concoct the obtuse and professionally atrocious claptrap that the Governor has dropped his “2nd term ambition.” Members of the public should therefore, discountenance and dismiss the said story as a figment of the imagination of the reporter,” he said.