By Efiok AKPAN
The House of Representatives’ quest of a Port Harcourt-based oil and gas mogul, Mr. Emmanuel Okon, popularly known as Eminence, has been described as dubious and unjust by a chieftain of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in Nsit Atai Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
Mr. Okon, who is the Managing Director of Eminence Oil Limited, sole distributor and marketer of petroleum products to the Akwa Ibom State Government, according to our source who also double as his relation, is alleged to be the self-acclaimed Nsit Atai political leader at-large based on the kangaroo role he played during the recently concluded local government primaries of the PDP.
“My brother, Eminence, is a very dubious man. He has been telling those who cared to listen to him how he funded the Udom Emmanuel Campaign Organization in 2015 to the tune of N500million. He supplies the State Government and some of its official petroleum products. In fact, he is the sole distributor and marketer of petroleum products to the Udom Emmanuel-led government. Even when people like us know that he supplies bunkering products. I am told that he is busy telling people that Governor Udom Emmanuel has given him Nsit Atai to control and evidence in the fact that he singlehandedly installed the PDP Chairmanship candidate and bulk of the Councillorship candidates of the area, beating the likes of Mark Esset, Idorenyin Udoh and Otuekong Raphael Bassey,” the PDP Chieftain said.
“Look, you are a journalist, go and find out. Nsit Atai politics is not showmanship and it has never been. It is beyond gathering a few women and giving them substandard textile materials or giving a few youth N5000 each in the guise of being politically philanthropic. Does he know all the political units and blocs in Nsit Atai? Which one can he boast of having complete and total command? Not even his Ward, which his brother, the PDP Chapter Chairman, can attest to. The fact that you shake hands with some relations of Governor Udom Emmanuel does not make you a politician let alone the political leader of Nsit Atai. Have you heard the House of Assembly member, Hon. Mark Esset or the Commissioner for Economic Development, Mr. Idorenyin Udoh talked? My brother, when the time comes, we will talk and also do the talk,” he stressed.
The Nsit Atai PDP Chieftain condemned the alleged House of Representatives’ ambition of Mr. Okon, saying “Eminence is parading himself as the man for the House of Reps in 2019. Does that sound just and fair? Uyo Federal Constituency comprises Uyo, Uruan, Nsit Atai and Ibesikpo Asutan. Nsit Atai just finished and the incumbent is Uyo. So, does it sound sensible for Nsit Atai to aspire for that seat now? It is only a dubious and criminally minded man that can think that way.”
Mr. Okon, a chieftain of the Mandate Preservation Group (MPG), is alleged to also have a negative imprint of ‘promise-and-fail’ on the minds of some politicians in the state that he had sought for one favour or the other from.
Every effort to reach Mr. Okon for reaction through phone call, SMS and Whatsapp proved abortive.
