Akwa Ibom 2023: PDP’s Eno didn’t step down, false prophets behind Okon’s false claims – Ntukude

The Deputy Director-General of Pastor Umo Eno’s campaign organisation, Dr Godwin Ntukude, has debunked the rumour that the 2023 Akwa Ibom governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Pastor Umo Eno, has stepped down for Mr Akan Okon.

He thereafter blamed the speculation on the antics of fake prophets who swindle their victims by giving them false hope and fake prophecies.

Mr. Okon, one of the party’s governorship aspirants had instituted a lawsuit against Eno, who is Governor Udom Emmanuel’s preferred candidate, over alleged certificate forgery.

In suit no. FHC/UY/CS/110/2022 dated June 7, 2022, Okon who is the immediate past Commissioner for Economic Development and Ibom Deep Seaport, prayed the court to disqualify Eno for having allegedly presented a forged West African School Certificate issued to him in 1981 and 1983; forged voter’s card as well as an altered date of birth.

There were rumours in the state that Eno later succumbed to the pressure and stepped down for Okon.

But Ntukude, in an interview session anchored by the Special Assistant to the Governor on Research and Documentation, Mr Essien Ndueso on Comfort FM, blamed false prophets who are solely materially driven for “driving Mr Okon into peddling such false news stories.”

According to him, “until politicians begin to rely on sound pieces of advice from major stakeholders and accept realities, they would continue to fall prey to greedy prophets who aim at exploiting and rendering them hopeless.

“There is this story in town that Akan my brother is a victim of a fake prophet. The one I’m told is a woman. Akan should try and detach himself from this (entanglement) because what is driving him into thinking that he can become governor, is a fake prophetic declaration.

“The artificial and false prophets are the geneses of the whole problem. The greatest challenge to our nascent democracy is the advent of false prophets who are materially inclined and self-centered to make their money.

“The kind of money they have extorted from these people is too humongous. The way they concoct these prophecies, and network with sister/brother prophets, you are bound to believe that you are the one chosen.

“I sympathize with my friend and brother Akan Okon. We have been together in the State executive council. Beyond being a very close friend to His Excellency the Governor who entrusted him with so many responsibilities, I don’t know what must have given him that false confidence that he can wobble through all these.

“This is a man who has never contested elections before and does not know what politics is all about. He is being misled by people who at the end, after draining him of his little money, will turn around and mock him.”

Ntukude also explained that most people who saw Eno leave the St Francis Secondary School, Ikot Ataku, after a few terms did not know that he furthered his education at Victory High School, Ikeja where he acquired his Senior School Certificate.

He added that Eno cannot relinquish the position that was entrusted to him and further advised the public to discard such speculations.