The noise about Akwa Ibom election is not correct. The position of the African Union monitoring team is not correct. The correct position is that of the domestic observers because those were the people who actually went to the villages. They went to every polling unit. The domestic observers are Nigerians accredited from every part of the country by the Independent National Electoral Commission. They are not from Akwa Ibom. Maybe the AU monitors were talking about petitions filed by parties and contestants. In an election, people, especially losers, are bound to complain. You cannot base the outcome of an election on the complaints by participants. If elections are conducted 10 times in Akwa Ibom, the PDP will win 10 times because there is a foundation of performance by the party.

But a former governor of the state, Chief Victor Attah, said there was no election in the state because electoral materials were carted away at his polling unit when he went to vote?

That is his opinion. At his level and position, he should be able to call INEC and ask them questions because the materials belong to INEC. Assuming you get to a place and there is no voting, the first thing you do is to call the Electoral Officer and ask him questions and based on the answer the REC gives, you know what next to do. The Electoral Officer should be able to tell you whether he has released materials for the unit and should tell you the supervising Presiding Officer. Attah was part of the electoral conspiracy in the state. They say they are members of Board of Trustees of the PDP but then they were supporting the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Umana Umana, along with Chief Don Etiebet.

The APC has called for the cancellation of the election and vowed to head for the tribunal.

I said it earlier, it is poverty of knowledge and it is a display of illiteracy because how can you call for cancellation, cancellation of what? If an election has been held, you cannot call for a cancellation of the election. If you have any issue, you go to the tribunal. We are not bothered about the tribunal. The tribunal is a known constitutional process.

In many cases, post-election relationships between governors and their successors in Nigeria have gone sour. Political analysts foresee post-election conflict between Governor Godswill Akpabio and his successor, Udom Emmanuel.

I don’t see any problem. Everything on earth needs to be done right. Once you do the right thing, you won’t have problems. Once there is mutual respect, you won’t have problems. Governor Akpabio has a very good disposition.

The incoming governor is also a very good personality with great depth and immense sense of respect and humility. He is coming with the massive idea of creating a major economic hub in the state. He is looking forward to creating economic partnerships. As a financial expert of international repute, the incoming governor is set to take the state higher on the infrastructural and economic base. The incumbent governor has achieved greatly in the areas of road infrastructure and aviation, the incoming government is going to turn our state into a great maritime power. We are planning to get Federal Government’s approval for our deep seaport. If we get the approval and open up the maritime potential of the state, business and commerce will naturally grow. This will improve the economy of the country in the long run.

The opposition has said Akwa Ibom State is being run like a family business where you have an incoming governor being a relative of the outgoing governor.

The Governor of Akwa Ibom State is from Essien Udim Local Government. His late mother also hails from Essien Udim Local Government. The governor-elect is from Eket senatorial district which is from Onna Local Government. His late mother also hails from that place. There is no relationship whatsoever. In fact, before Udom became the Secretary to the State Government, the current governor never knew his house. They just met at the airport in 2013 and the governor asked him, ‘Would you want to work with me as SSG?’ That doesn’t mean there was no cordial relationship between them as senior citizens of the state but it was not to the extent of being maternally related as the opposition is claiming.