BY Innocent Anaba

Akwa Ibom State Government has described an alleged assassination attempt on Chief Sunny Udom as “bare-faced falsehood and blackmail,” designed to “taint and tarnish the hard-earned image, integrity and reputation” of the Governor Goodswill Akpabio-led administration.

A governorship aspirant in the state and former Secretary to the State Government, Umana Okon Umana, in a petition by his counsel, Uzomah Ibegbulem, to the Inspector-General of Police,  had alleged that the Director-General of his campaign organisation Mr. Udom, narrowly escaped assassination when gunmen numbering about five attacked his office complex in Umo Essien Street, off Obio Imo Street, Uyo.

Describing the content of the petition as “wicked lies and utter falsehood,” deliberately put in the public domain to misinform unsuspecting members of the public and hoodwink them into believing what he tagged as baseless allegations, the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr. Aniekan Umanah, said Udom only misconstrued an armed robbery attack as assassination attempt and tried to blame same on the governor for political reasons.

He said: “It is unfortunate that a robbery incident at Udom’s office has been misconstrued as an assassination attempt. It is on record that the Department of State Security, DSS, had since smashed an armed robbery gang, and subsequently paraded them before newsmen, for which they made confessional statements as those responsible for the attack on Udom’s office on May 6.”

He added that the DSS expressed regret over the politicisation of the crime, when the agency had noted in a statement that as the investigation was ongoing, local and national media were inundated with sensational headlines of orchestrated state government sponsored assassination and political attacks targeted at key opponents particularly, using the attack on Udom as a reference point.

Umanah  regretted Udom’s labelling of the deceased PDP stalwart and personal friend of Akpabio, the late Albert Ukpanah, as his ‘opponent’ in the petition, saying such statement would baffle any observer, who knew the depth of the relationship between both men.