Tuesday February 4, 2025 | TheNewsDESK
The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has tendered an unreserved apology to Akwa Ibom State Governor Umo Eno PhD over their misleading allegations against the Akwa Ibom State Government on issues involving contracts and stated that its “kickback story is not quite correct.”
They are saying that they are satisfied with the clarification given by the State Government.
In a Press Statement signed by the Party’s Spokesman Manfred Ekpe, The African Democratic Congress noted that it “hereby retract any statement in the said press statement that may have caused embarrassment to His Excellency Pastor Umo Eno, Ph.D and the Government. I also unreservedly apologize for the same.”
The Party went further to absolve the Governor of any wrong doing in the award of contracts and contract sum involving the ARISE Compassionate homes and Uyo Village road, “Now that the Government has come out to clarify that only 25 Million Naira is the gross cost of each unit and executed by direct Labour, we believe such misinformation has been cleared from the air.
“We did not mention the rumoured amount.”
“We repeat, nowhere in our statement did we accuse His Excellency the Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, Ph.D of personally executing the Arise Compassionate Home contract nor recieving any kickbacks.
“The Party was only emphasizing on rumours making the rounds and calling on His Excellency’s attention to them in our own style of writing.
“We respectfully invite His Excellency to reread our said press statement all over again he will realize that we meant no harm and never made any positive accusation of him.”
“The Party also complained that hitherto, there was no information about the Contractors hired by Government to build the ARISE Compassionate homes nor the cost implication of each unit declared by Government to the public.
“The Party went ahead to point out that there were rumours that hundreds of Millions of Naira were involved in each Unit of the Home.”
ADC further denied ever saying that the Governor got kick back from Uyo Village road contract stating that they mistakenly mentioned Uyo Village road in their statement as they refered to a “certain road in uyo”.
“Our Party was only drawing His Excellency’s attention to the allegations against him and his Government, and inviting him to clarify those misinformation and doubts in the minds of the public. This could not mean positive accusation of the Governor by our Party or at all.
“This Party have severally commended His Excellency and his Government in its decisions, policies and programs that we genuinely believe are people-oriented”.
