By TONY NYONG

UYO—Chairman, Senate Committee on Establishment and Productivity, Senator Alloysius Etok, has fired back at Akwa Ibom State governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, for saying that he (Etok) will be his campaign manager for the 2015 senatorial election in the state.

Etok, representing Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District, in a chat with Vanguard, said there would be no vacancy in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District seat come 2015, and that the governor’s recent comment  was an insult to him.

The two-term Senator, said: “The governor has not consulted me. I am a serving senator and I am very busy with my task in the Senate. I am busy trying to give effective representation to my people, and my people are satisfied with me, so I don’t know what the governor is talking about.

“Akpabio must, as a matter of fact, respect my office. If he does not respect me, as I respect his office as the governor, then that will not be fair. Nobody can rubbish my office or intimidate me. As for the governor seeking to go to the senate, I have told him there is no vacancy in the senate for Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District. He can look elsewhere.”