The Town Hall Meetings held by the Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio, have progressively turned into regrettable ventures for the governor as he has continued to meet with the opposition of natives who are bent on resisting the attempt to impose a gubernatorial candidate on the state come 2015.
Sources told us that in Federal Constituencies like Eket, Etinan, Ikono and Itu which he has travelled to, Akpabio was greeted with protests by thousands of placard carrying constituents who were mostly locked out of the venues of these meetings.
Our sources who have been on the trail of the governor on all these trips explained that placards carried by members of these communities had inscriptions like: “we don’t want impositions,” “do not force people on us”, we must exercise our rights to decide those to vote for”, Akpabio, we say no to zoning” all in reaction to the governor’s attempt to sell his choice candidate for the 2015 gubernatorial elections to the people.
We learnt that the people are highly disappointed that rather than come to speak to them about things that would improve their lives, Akpabio’s mission is to sell the candidature of the Secretary to the State Government, Udom Emmanuel as the next governor and himself as the next senator to represent his district.
Sensing that the people are opposed to his position, the governor has resorted into hiring a crowd to accompany him to all the town hall meetings with the payment of a whopping N250,000 to each of those who loyally do his bidding while legitimate constituents in each of these localities are either locked out of the venue or are not allowed to air their views.
