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Akpabio, Udoedehe Brawl: Engr. Enyong
Dissociates Self |
In a swift reaction to the
recent interview report in the Weekly Update Newspaper
edition of Monday, March 1, 2010, Engr. (Dr.) Michael Enyong,
a US-based businessman whose personal name and that of his
family were conspicuously mentioned in the said report has
distanced himself and his family from the said publication.
Speaking at a news briefing held at Clearview Hotel, Ewet
Housing, on Thursday, March 4, 2010, and based on a
statement signed by the businessman, Engr. Enyong explained
that he was in the country not only to refute what he termed
as “malicious and damaging allegations as conveyed in the
Senator's unguarded utterances”, but that he was also here
to debunk all the insinuations as baseless, untrue and
inconsequential.
Quoting Senator John James Akpanudoedehe's statement in the
said report thus: “Thirdly Mike Enyong and the Enyongs sold
a land costing hundreds of millions of naira to the
Governor. Immediately after the money for the land was paid,
some armed men stormed the house of the Enyongs and demanded
for the money. How did they know that the money had been
paid for the land if those people who went to rob the family
of that money are not part of Akpabio's government?”, the
Engr. reiterated that sometime in early 2007 before the
swearing in of Chief Godswill Akpabio into office he had
successfully sealed a land transaction between himself and
the state governor, Chief Akpabio. He declined divulging
details of the said land transaction to anybody, including
Senator John Udoedehe.
Engr. Enyong argued that even though the kidnap incidents on
members of his family, i.e. his family and elder brother
mentioned in the interview by the Senator were true, they
occurred much later in 2009 (sic), maintaining that it was
two years after the conclusion of the land transaction, and
therefore could not be said to have occurred “immediately
after the money for the land was paid”, saying that it was
therefore illogical to believe that the abductors came for
the land proceeds almost two years after payment.
He further informed that the only time Senator Udoedehe
heard of the land transaction was in 2007, in the presence
of Governor Akpabio and “I can recollect that Senator
Udoedehe, maybe out of hytech homour, suggested to Governor
Akpabio to tke the land from me without payment of any
consideration, a kind of revocation of [my] certificate of
occupancy of the land, but the governor rather said 'no' to
the suggestion, adding that he would go ahead and pay me for
the two plots I was willing to sell to him”, he added,
quoting the governor as saying then that, “I came to empower
people, not to take away from them.”
While admitting knowing both Senator John Akpanudoedehe and
Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio to be “best of friends during
the governorship campaigns of 2007”, he said hopes that
“sooner (than later) time, the great healer, will afford
both of them the facility to resolve the friction founded on
a mutual interest which is only know to these two great sons
of Akwa Ibom State, but which is not very clear to the rest
of us.”
He therefore urged public-spirited individuals and groups to
discountenance the allegations of Senator Udoedehe as,
according to him, they lack substance, and were only meant
to be used to score cheap political points.
It will be recalled that sometime in late 2008, Engr.
Enyong's father and later his brother were abducted, placing
a ransom of N40m on the latter.
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