If Governor Godswill Akpabio feels getting the key to the senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to represent the people of Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District come 2015 will be rosy, then he has to think twice as the current occupant of that seat, Senator Aloysius Etok has made it known that he will contest that position and will emerge victorious.
Senator Aloysious Etok made this known to THE INK when he hosted select media professionals in his Ewet Housing Hiltop mansion residence on Sunday night. Etok stated that he has answered the question as related to his 2015 senate ambition on many occasions.
He stressed that he is going to contest the 2015 senate race in the state for the people of Ikot Ekpene Senatorial district and will emerge victorious. Aloysious Etok said “I had to call this a media chat because for a long time, we have not chatted. Gentlemen, we are going to be very brief. Why I have decided to invite you to this media chat principally is because of what the Blueprint published on Monday or so, along the line somebody called, I think towards the end of last week or so that the media in the state was awashed with some information, some wrote that Aloysius Etok was bribed on this pension matters and I decided to invite you for this media chat. But initially, I decided not to speak on the subject matter because Blueprint said and it was front page that I gave the bribe of N1b to Senator Aloysius Etok and it was claimed that the petition was written by the PA of Shuabiu and the PA claimed to be a lawyer. So when the media called me for my comment, I told them that since it was a petition I didn’t want to speak in order not to prejudice the process of litigation and I waited for an invitation by the EFCC or ICPC, having not seen or heard any invitation from the security agencies, I decided to make clarifications especially when it concerns the political landscape of Akwa Ibom State”.
Speaking further, Aloysious Etok said, another reason I’ve decided to speak to you is because of my followers and family who may be traumatized by that, call it scandal or outburst.
First and foremost I want to state categorically that throughout the process of pension probe I never demanded, collected, or obtained any bribe from any person who appeared before me. Shuaibu inclusive. I never collected money from Shuaibu, the paper said that the PA gave me N50m and Two hundred thousand dollars $200, 000. I never also collected any car from Shuaibu, all my cars you see here, I have the particulars so if you need them I will show to you.
And I have never collected any land from Shuaibu either in Abuja or anywhere in this country or from anybody as a bribe on the pension matter. The truth is that the senate have made it very clear that some persons will not be liable to get the position of the chairman of Pencom because of their questionable characters and those with such characters may be the one who are fighting to tarnish my hard earned image and integrity. Let me also state here that some persons who are afraid of my towering political profile may also be the ones that are behind the mischief, but in all these distractions, I am busy doing my work honestly and with all sincerity, Aloysious Etok stated.
Continuing, the senator said, Let me add also that I did not collect neither was I given any equipments. Maybe the equipment they are linking me to are the ones I used for community development”.
Aloysious Etok however challenged any person who said he demanded or obtained bribe during the tenure or the period of investigation to come out and make such particulars available to EFCC or the public so as to help during the investigation.
“But what I do know is that, it is blatant lie and a concoction carried out by both my political enemies who wants me down by all means or who wants to rubbish my integrity with the thinking that my political profile are becoming too intimidating. So they have decided to concoct this blatant lie in an attempt to tarnish my reputation”. The Ikot Ekpene senatorial district rep maintained.
Again, the senator added that the second angle is that the pension thieves have not given up, and maintained that they (pension thieves) are still fighting the report, in other to up turn the committee’s reports so as to have a way to move forward and you know as well as I do that if you destroy somebody’s means of livelihood you cannot go home and sleep because they have been using fraudulent means to earn their money and after terminating such sources of revenues and corrupt enrichment they are bound to fight back. Therefore, in the interest of Akwa Ibom public and Nigerian public generally, I decided that I should make this clarification for you to know and use your good and respective offices to enlighten the public that I have said today that I never asked or obtained, neither money nor equipment or land in view of or as a means of bribing me.
And let me tell you these, the report did not contain any thing about Shuaibu you know why? Because the committee took a decision that all those other people who were already in a court of competent jurisdiction handling the matter should not be invited so as not to prejudice the case. We decided that we should allow the courts to handle and come out with the judgment. And we decided to exclude all of them.
But be it as it may, I can confidently tell you that one of them has already been jailed.
Therefore, let me use this opportunity to also beg of you that you should use your various media houses to call on the Nigerian government and the executive in particular to implement all the items of the report.
And conclusively, Etok maintained that, his integrity is intact and he is not going to disappoint his followers and God whom he represents. In his words, “So I want to let you know that as far as I am concerned, my integrity is intact, because I have not asked for and I have not obtained bribe directly or indirectly”.
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