Wednesday September 10, 2025
By TheNewsDESK |
As the reception accorded former Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State by his successor’s aides sparks controversy and sets off loyalty debates, Governor Umo Eno has clarified that the real threat lies not in openly welcoming leaders but in those backstabbers who whisper lies in secret yet smile in your face.
“For me, those to watch out for are not those who pay respect to our leaders in the open. It is those who sneak surreptitiously to tell lies and plant evil seeds and yet come to smile with you,” a report by an online newspaper, Policy and Politics, quoted Governor Eno as saying. The Policy and Politics’ report is authored by Etim Etim, the paper’s publisher and editor-in-chief.
Mr Etim, a former editorial board member at The Guardian newspaper, is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Akwa Ibom.
Governor Eno spoke in the wake of his predecessor’s recent visit to the state, where some politicians, including his aides, trooped to the airport to welcome him, with some accompanying the former governor to his country home in Onna Local Government Area, where he came for the burial of his late cousin.
Deacon Emmanuel, who was recently inaugurated as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, National Convention Committee, was visiting the state for the first time after his successor, Pastor Eno, whom he helped to become governor, defected from the PDP to the APC.
The reception accorded to Ex-Governor Emmanuel during the visit by aides of Governor Eno, who had also served under the former governor, has sparked loyalty debates, prompting Policy and Politics to seek the governor’s reactions.
