Akpabio didn’t bribe me with up to N5bn as others report – Senator Aloysius Etok

The senator representing Akwa Ibom North-West
senatorial district, Aloysius Etok, has denied reports
that he conceded his seat to Governor Godswill
Akpabio for N5bn.
Etok said this during a telephone interview with our
correspondent on Tuesday.
“If I had collected N5bn to step down for Akpabio,
then I am very lucky. But I am sure others must have
collected a similar sum. But I spoke as a statesman
and I acted like a statesman,” he said.
Etok stated that some people were defrauded during
the Peoples Democratic Party primaries in the state
which has made many members of the party to be
dissatisfied and annoyed. He noted that the party
would, however, resolve the issues.
He revealed that he was consulting with the PDP
caucus members, especially those in the National
Assembly to see how they could intervene so that the
party would not fail in presenting a credible candidate
for the governorship election.
He said, “It will be very dangerous for the party if
Akwa Ibom PDP fails to win the governorship election.
So, we at the National Assembly caucus are consulting
among ourselves to see the dimension we can
intervene.
“Some governorship aspirants in the state are not
happy with the outcome of the primaries. I want to
say that the matter is an internal matter of the PDP.
What we call primaries pass through processes and if
one of those processes is faulted, the entire process
will be wrong.”
He, however, said the state may not have quality
representation in the senate for the next four years.
He said that legislators needed at least three years to
function effectively, adding that the job of a legislator
was not the same as that of a member of the
executive.
According to him, the fact that some legislators from
the state are not going back to the senate is not very
good for the legislature. He noted that Nigeria spent
millions of naira training legislators every year on
legislative matters.

Culled from Punch newspaper