Akwa Ibom State governor, Pastor Umo Eno, has defended his embattled predecessor and political godfather, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, on the N700 billion fraud allegation against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), saying his former boss had done nothing incriminating to warrant media hype.
He described as false, and spurious the insinuations making the rounds that Mr. Emmanuel has a case to answer over an allegation of fraud before the anti-graft agency, maintaining that “the allegations of misappropriation of N700bn is not only false but totally unfounded.”
Speaking during the just-concluded Town Hall meeting with the people of Abak Federal Constituency at the Abak Township Stadium, Governor Eno said his successor, Emmanuel, “served the State meritoriously and deserves gratitude and appreciation.”
Recall that former Governor Emmanuel, who was Akwa Ibom State governor between 2015-2023, had visited the EFCC headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday to honour an invitation, and despite being allowed to leave the same day and return to his home in Lagos, a section of the media had reported that he was being held by the anti-graft agency in relation to an alleged N700billion graft under his watch.
But, his successor in office, Governor Eno dismissed the rumours, saying such figures and allegations were unknown to his government, regretting that the attitude of the people trying to drag down leaders who sacrificed for the common good of the people, tends to discourage people from committing to service.
Governor Eno said: “Because at the end of the day, the people don’t show you that gratitude. When a man has served his State meritoriously like Deacon Udom Emmanuel did, honestly, he should be honoured, he should be respected.
“And so I don’t see a place for this kind of information that is going on. It’s not correct. I don’t believe it should go on. I don’t believe so. So, I don’t know where they get the figures from. I don’t know where they churn it out from, but I can tell you as a sitting governor that, it is not correct.
“It is not true. The media trial must and should stop forthwith. And we need to dismiss this issue with a pinch of salt.”
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