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Ahead of the 2023 crucial general election, the factional fights for the soul of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State have again been rekindled by old foes and longtime political gladiators. The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief GodswillAkpabio and the current National Care-taker Chairman of the APC, Senator John Udoedehe, are again locked in the fierce contest for supremacy over the party.At stake is the party’s leadership slot and the turf for the battle is Akwa Ibom, where the two camps have their loyalists split into two camps.
Akpabio and Udoedehe, have had running battles forl control of the oil rich state under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), following the expiration of the tenure of Obong Victor Attah, the inaugural governor of the state at the return of democracy in 1999.The duo had formed an alliance in the runup to the 2007 elections, when Akpabio, fought tight battle to succeed ObongAttah, who had already anointed his son-in-law, DrUdomEkarika, as his successor.But Akpabio, a suave and uncanny politician, who had served for six years in Attah’s cabinet in Ministries of Lands, Petroleum as well as Chieftaincy and Local Government Affairs, was able to cash-in on ObongAttah’s campaign to succeed then President Olusegun Obasanjo, to overturn the apple cart in his favour. He got the PDP nomination ticket, against all odds after series of primaries conducted on about three occasions by one senior official of the Department of State Services (DSS), AlhajiTafida, at the state House of Assembly ground and the grand finale at Ibom Hall.