March 05, (THEWILL) – A legal practitioner in Akwa Ibom State and media aide to the former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Barr Stephen Abia, has debunked the widespread rumours, mostly on social media, that Mr Udom Emmanuel was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Speaking to some Correspondents in Uyo on Wednesday, Abia said, “Mr Emmanuel was simply honouring the invitation of the Commission as a patriotic citizen of Nigeria and had since returned and gone about his normal business.
“Yesterday, in what was purely a routine affair, the immediate past Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel, CON, honoured the invitation by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). This, he did, seamlessly in his undaunted spirit of patriotism and sense of responsibility.
“It is worth emphasising here that this invitation has been extended to thousands of Nigerians, both the rich and the not-so-rich, political and corporate titans. An invitation, therefore, is not a conviction”, he explained.
He frowned at a situation where a section of the media had been egged on by what he described as “Mr Udom Emmanuel’s traducers and political adversaries”, had made the invitation seem like he was convicted.
“Dispassionate minds need to note the elementary distinctions between an invitation and honouring the same, and an arrest which demands some legal mechanics.
“Mr Udom Emmanuel had since yesterday evening left the EFCC headquarters in Abuja to his home. He was not detained, it must be emphasised, as was reported yesterday by a section of the media.
“As a statesman, Mr Udom Emmanuel is open to interactions within the confines of the law as one who has nothing to hide and dreads no query”, Abia stressed.
He noted that the former governor presided over a robust growth in Akwa Ibom State faced by two harsh economic environments: the economic meltdown that occurred shortly after he was sworn-in in 2015, which saw the price of oil drop to historic lows and the COVID-19 pandemic that ravaged the world shortly after he was sworn in for a second term.
“In spite of these, he presided over eight years of economic growth that saw many expansions in the infrastructural profile of the state, earning Akwa Ibom the singular distinction of the state with the best road network of all the subnationals in the nation.
“He established Ibom Air, which today, has been adjudged the best airline in Nigeria, and ran a deeply transparent government where the budgets and government expenditures were regularly published.
“His performance was applauded across party lines, leading to the award of the Commander of the Order of Nigeria (CON), bestowed on him by the immediate past President and Commander-in-Chief, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, despite being a Governor elected on the platform of the PDP.”
He, however, called on the teeming admirers of Udom Emmanuel to disregard all unnecessary media frenzy, as the former governor is free as a patriotic citizen of Nigeria and Akwa Ibom in particular.
