Another Commissioner joins guber race ...Says I will resign soon

BY EMMANUEL AKPAN

Ahead of the 2015 general elections in Akwa Ibom State, the Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Hon. (Pastor) Ita Udo has made known his intention to contest for the governorship position.

Hon. Udo made this known to newsmen last week Friday during a chat at the Ibom International Airport immediately he returned from Abuja on an official assignment.

The Commissioner said he has made his mind to resign at the end of this month (September) in order to pursue his governorship ambition come 2015 “I am happy to announce to you that September is my last month in the State executive council. By the end of this month, I intend to pull out so that I can concentrate on my governorship ambition”.

Udo who has served the present administration as Special Assistant (SA) to Governor Godswill Akpabio on education matters is also a former Commissioner for Youth and Sports. He stated that his administration as the next governor come 2015 will focus on human capacity building, job creation for youths and women empowerment in agriculture even as he promised to attract investors to the State.
According to him, “I know the problem of Akwa Ibom State. My government will focus on capacity development. We will train our youths on various trades and small scale businesses. I will be the first governor to establish youths development bank which will help the youths save their money for better use, and it will also help investors coming into the State”,

On the area of sports, the Eket-born politician promised to take advantage of the new stadium built by the present administration to engage the youths on different sporting activities that will help them discover their talent, adding that the present government led by Chief Akpabio has done a lot in infrastructural development and that he will continue from there by developing humans.

On whether he is being sent or supported by Godswill Akpabio on his ambition, Hon. Ita Udo noted that the governor has given everybody in his cabinet, especially those from Eket Senatorial District the liberty to contest the governorship election, adding that anybody going around to say that he or she is being supported or sent by the Governor is deceiving the masses.

He thanked the state Governor for giving him the opportunity to serve in the State executive council as Special Adviser and Commissioner, while promising to use the knowledge and experiences gained to drive the State to the next level. Meanwhile the official declaration of Hon. Ita Udo for the position of Governor will take place next month as soon as he tenders his resignation letter by the end of September.