2023: ‘I’m the authentic PDP guber candidate in Akwa Ibom’ – Enyong replies critics

The factional governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Akwa Ibom State, Hon Mike Enyong, has urged his critics not to demonize him but commend him for taking such a bold step to salvage his party before the 2023 elections.

Enyong, who was said to have won the parallel primary after polling 2,000 votes cast by 2,744 statutory delegates, had been severely criticized for the divisive tendency.

But Enyong, the member representing Uyo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, insisted that his action was the only reason the party will be on the ballot papers as he has deep understanding of the current electoral act and the constitution of the country.

He maintained that the May 18 Abuja High Court order on ad hoc delegates with status quo ante bellum subsists and automatically left the party with no ad hoc delegates to conduct governorship primaries for the party, hence his decision to use the statutory delegates.

He said, “That order still subsists as we speak today. I am the rightful candidate of the party and the next governor of Akwa Ibom State.

“I am waiting for July 15 for the people to understand that I am the rightful candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party in Akwa Ibom State. The court had asked for status quo ante bellum in the case brought before it over the fraudulent selection of some people as ad hoc delegates but they went ahead and used them to pick their preferred aspirant but I understood the implication of being part of the sham and opted for the primaries with statutory delegates with the INEC as observers and officials from the national secretariat of our dear party.”

Enyong further described as laughable the trending video of a youth alleging that he got a paltry N1000 after voting as a delegate in the primaries that produced him as a candidate, saying that he can’t even give beggars on the street N1000 talk more of a politician.

“I don’t know him, they are using him to blackmail me, he is not part of the exercise, go and ask all the statutory delegates that participated to get a clearer picture.”