By Chioma Onuegbu and Harris-Okon Emmanuel

The narrative of violence that trailed the ward congresses of the All Progressives Congress, APC, across the country was totally different in Akwa Ibom State. It was an irony given the fact that the party had been enmeshed in strife since it first birthed in the state in 2014.

The pursuit for peace came after years of discontent between the pioneers in the party aligned to Senator John Akpanudoedehe and defectors from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP who got the upper hand in the nomination for elective offices in 2015.

Both sides had related like cat and mouse before the series of meetings by key stakeholders at the Ewet Housing Estate residence of Senator Ita Enang Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, (Senate). The meetings which held for three days before last weekend’s congress, inevitably punctured the anxiety that many had predicted would envelope the congress.

Prominent among the key stakeholders that participated in the peace meetings were   former governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), who was also a governorship aspirant of the APC in 2015 Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, a former deputy governor of the state Obong Nsima Ekere; APC governorship candidate in 2015, Mr. Umana Okon Umana.

Others include a former minister of petroleum Otuekong Don Etiebet, a former military administrator of Ogun and Rivers States and a two time governorship candidate of the defunct All Nigeria People Party (ANPP) Capt. Sam Ewang (retd), senator representing Akwa Ibom South where governor Udom hails from Senator Nelson Effiong, Senator Aloysius Etok; Ben Ukpong,   APC South-South Zonal Women Leader, Mrs. Rachel Akpabio among few others.

The crisis which was a fall-out of the 2014 gubernatorial nomination exercise, reportedly endured all along resisting entreaties for a truce until last weekend.

Many pundits had long predicted that the party would implode because of the lack of solid structure and harmony within its ranks.

Senator John Udoedehe, a founding member of the party was reportedly aggrieved because he was allegedly rigged out in the primary that produced Umana Okon Umana as the APC candidate for the 2015 governorship.

Besides, the former Minister of State, FCT, had rejected the choice of Don Etiebet, who he described as a factional leader, as the chairman of the APC caucus in the state. Etiebet, besides being a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, was a National Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and commands much influence in the state politics.

Senator Akpanudoedehe had stated in the spirit of give and take in an interview that it was it was not as if he and his “faction” could not work with