By Chioma Onuegbu, Uyo

A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party PDP, in Akwa Ibom State, Chief Usoro Usoro, has said that the governorship aspirant Senator Bassey Akpan never called anybody dog when he addressed youths of Eket senatorial district few weeks ago.

Usoro who is the spokesman of Senator Akpan’s Akwa UbokAbasi campaign organisation, spoke while trying to clear the air about issue during a media interaction yesterday in Uyo.

He explained that the ”who born dog’ video which trended on the social media, credited to his principal Akpan was deliberately edited by some people who are looking for stories to concoct.

He also explained that the reason their campaign team did not react to the issue then was because they were focused on their consultations, stressing that it was, however, not their style to react to such frivolous issues.

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His words: “Let me say it here, that Senator Bassey Akpan never called anybody Dog. He had no reason to, he couldn’t have, and he doesn’t talk that way. And the reason you didn’t see any reaction from our camp over such issue is because we are focused.

“We are focused on convincing the delegates about what Senator Albert Akpan will do to change their lives for the better when he becomes governor in 2023. When I was a Chief Press Secretary to governor Godswill Akpabio, try and recall, I never joined issues with people anyhow.

“I never reacted to frivolous issues because they add no value to what you are doing. It is people who don’t have stories to tell that will sit down and concoct stories.

“What OBA (Senator Akpan) said when he addressed  youths of Eket senatorial district, was “2023 will be a year of jubilee, a year that youths will be liberated from hunger, poverty and starvation. And in the course of saying that he said, ‘who born dog not to allow youths to be free’. They went and cut the video tape, and ‘who born dog’ became a story”

Also Usoro asserted that he has no reason to doubt the claim by Ephraim Inyangeyen, former Chief of Staff (CoS) to governor Udom that there was a pact between Senator Akpan and Governor Udom over the 2023 gubernatorial seat, since he was very close to Udom then.

“I think when governor Udom Emmanuel came out to contest for governorship in 2015, one of the closest persons to him was Ephraim Inyangeyen. I wasn’t there. If there was somebody who would know whether there was a pact or not, that would be Ephraim Inyangeyen.

“So if Ephraim Inyangeyen is saying there was a pact, then I believe him. Let me also say something here. There is a senior colleague who is in Abuja. I will not mention his name, but he was in Udom’s campaign then, in one of the highest platforms of the campaign.

“He is not in support of OBA, but he told me clearly that he was there, that Senator Effiong Bob also was there when that agreement was reached. So I have no reason to doubt him (Inyangeyen)

“The third person that I will quote is OBA himself. Senator Albert Akpan we all know has been a Commissioner in this State, he is a Senator and whether in age or experience, he knows what he is talking about if he says that there was an agreement”, Usoro said.

But the Special Assistant to governor Emmanuel on Research & Documentation, Mr Essien Ndueso had on Tuesday in a radio interview programme in Uyo faulted the claim by Inyangeyen saying it was the existing zoning arrangement of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, that favoured his boss in 2015.

“The consensus was that power should shift, or be zoned to Eket Senatorial District in 2015.

Despite being on the governor’s entourage throughout the townhall meetings, Bassey Akpan defied that unanimous decision of the people then and purchased the governorship form.