UbongAbasi Ise

By UbongAbasi Ise According to a press statement from the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the composition of the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. The former Akwa Ibom State commissioner for culture and tourism, Mr. Victor Antai has been named to represent Akwa Ibom in the board, while another indigene of the state, Engr. Otobong Ndem has been appointed as the Executive Director, Projects. While Dr. Pius Odubu from Edo State is appointed new NDDC Chairman,  Mr. Bernard O. Okumagba from Delta State is the Managing Director of the commission, with Mr.  Maxwell Okoh from Bayelsa being the Executive Director Finance and Administration. Others appointed to represent other areas include Prophet Jones Erue (Delta); Chief Victor Ekhatar (Edo); Dr. Joy Yimebe Nunieh (Rivers); Nwogu Nwogu (Abia); Theodore A. Allison (Bayelsa); Maurice Effiwatt (Cross River); Olugbenga Elema (Ondo); Mr. Uchegb

 By UbongAbasi Ise The 2019 edition of Miss Finest Queen Nigeria, MFQN, has come and gone, but the memories appear not to be leaving the minds of the participants anytime soon. It was quite a spectacular Friday night in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, as the management of Slyz-B Movie Music Production & Modeling Agency staged a beauty pageantry that produced another bevy of crowned queens, with the overall winner going home with a saloon car and a prize of N500,000. About fourteen attractive young women drawn across the country, showed off their shades of beauty and talents in a keenly contested pageantry that was organized with the theme,  Beauty and Focus . While speaking with  The Sensor  correspondent, Miss Deborah Edet, 20, who emerged the overall winner of the competition, confirmed the receipt of the car and cash prize, including a movie deal with an entertainment company. Miss Edet, a 200 level Economics student at the National Open University of Nigeria

Dr. Effiong Etok, a cerebral politician, is the immediate past Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC , Akwa Ibom State Chapter, and he is presently the Director General of Akwa Ibom APC foundation. In this interview with UBONGABASI ISE, our correspondent, Etok confessed his initial fears regarding defectors that came into his party with Senator Godswill Akpabio in 2018. But he would not hide his strong admiration for Senator Godswill Akpabio as he believes that, as a minister, the former Senate minority leader would be the best representative of Akwa Ibom State at the Federal Executive Council after over 20 years of weak presence of the state at the centre of Nigerian politics. Dr. Effiong Etok would not be happy with Akpabio if he turns around to feed those that betrayed him in recent past, EXCERPT: Let’s meet you sir I am simply Dr. Effiong Etok, the immediate past state Secretary of APC. Presently, I am the Director General, Akwa Ibom APC foundation. These grou

By UbongAbasi Ise  The new Chairman of the Governing Council of  Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Ikot Osurua, has vowed to wield a big stick against lecturers indulging in awarding marks to students in return for sex and money, including sales of textbooks beyond approved price limits. The chairman, Barr. Ekpeyong Ntekim who is the former Akwa Ibom State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, was over weekend, held his maiden interactive meeting with the staff of the institution, and he used the opportunity to address corrupt practices and unethical conducts perpetrated by some lecturers which portray the polytechnic in the bad light. The meeting was an ample opportunity to warn the school authority against victimization of students, while calling on improvement in the staff-students relationship. According to Ntekim, "We shall be very decisive in policy initiation, formulation and implementation to help achieve envisaged goals and objectives. But vices such

By UbongAbasi Ise One should wonder how logically correct it is for a group of persons with glaring partisanship background to wake up and arrogate themselves the rights to speak on behalf  of the entire Akwa Ibom people on the outcome of the 2019 general elections without recourse to the consciousness of the electorates. On page 31 of The Nation Newspaper edition of Wednesday August 14, 2019, a group of individuals that called themselves Ibom Patriots claimed in paragraph 5 of a sponsored advertorial that they are the conscience of the state nay the nation. They would decorate with superlatives the very elections some Akwa Ibomites saw as the debasement of electoral system. They described the exercise as being the freest, fairest, transparent and widely celebrated.  They wrote in paragraph 9 that the elections were accordingly won and lost, and that “APC was expected to exhibit the virtues of the true democrats by accepting the outcome and to congratulate the winners having witness

 By  UbongAbasi Ise Two Akwa Ibomites have been named for roles in the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, by the presidency. The Sensor  has reliably been informed that Sir Victor Antai is the new NDDC commissioner for Akwa Ibom State, while Mr. Otobong Ndem becomes the new Director of Projects for the commission. Victor Antai was a two-term council chairman of Mbo local government area and former state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs as well as Culture and Tourism. Antai moved from the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC upon the defection of Senator Godswill Akpabio. This immediately earned him a sack by Governor Udom Emmanuel who relieved him of his job as the commissioner for Culture and Tourism on August 7, 2018. His major setback came when he contested for the seat of Oron/Mbo/Okobo/Udung Uko Federal Constituency in the 2019 general election, which was allegedly flawed by irregularit

By Da  Effiong  Daniel  On the 25th May 2019,  I was praying at about 8:51 am, a word came to my heart, “Jesus Christ among the animals. While I was meditating suddenly the heaven opened and I saw a bright light shown out very bright that I wasn’t able to look at. It was beaming upon the Centre of the earth which was so dark .In the trance, I saw an angel blowing a trumpet with a loud sound which was heard everywhere, a sound of a loud trumpet that was shaking the heaven and the earth. And I heard a loud voice immediately after the trumpet blast   saying “, come out of darkness oh you my people” ”there was quietness everywhere and I immediately it looked like the whole world was a thick dark forest, and different kinds of animals and birds came out to one after the other to the Centre. While I was watching the scene, some animal were carrying the flags of nations with some other animals following. I   saw tootsie carrying the flag of Saudi Arabia; I saw Iranian flag carried by a

By UbongAbasi Ise In the night of Wednesday 7th August, 2019, something on the internet kicked me into a pleasant mood: I couldn't stop scrolling up and down a PC screen viewing in admiration pictures that had just surfaced online showing two iconic personalities that brought rapid modernization to Akwa Ibom State. Arc. (Obong) Victor Attah and distinguished Senator Godswill Akpabio were found apparently having nice moments together in those photos. As captions were not comprehensive, I knew immediately that there would be deluge of interpretations and recombination of narratives by Akwa Ibom media just to explain those exceptional pictures. Sure, it did happen, but no single explanation distorts the fact that the two former governors brought life and spice to the state that was very pedestrian in a true sense of word. The duo had since left the Hilltop Mansion together with their media aides. No one is left under the state government employ to defend them and to laund

By UbongAbasi Ise                                         All is now set for judgment at the national assembly election tribunal after the adoption of final addresses by the parties to the petition filed by Senator Godswill Akpabio challenging the declaration of Senator Chris Ekpenyong as the winner of February 23 senatorial election. Counsel to the petitioner, S.I. Ameh was on Thursday, mocked the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, (3rd Respondent and two ors) over their claims that there was no election in some places in Essien Udim local government area. Following INEC claims of no election because materials were carted away by armed thugs and never replaced, Ameh questioned where the commission obtained the results as produced in their certified true copies and tendered before the tribunal, adding that “you cannot give what you don’t have.” The petitioner’s counsel argued that the only election officials that could have cancelled the results remained the p

By UbongAbasi Ise  The former Senate minority leader and minister-designate, Senator Godswill Akpabio has come out with facts and figures to confront the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, over their recent call for his prosecution  on alleged diversion of constituency projects he attracted as a lawmaker to his senatorial district. Akpabio, who described the allegations levelled against him by SERAP as mischievous and misguided, has written to the anti-corruption agencies to look into the claims raised by the group. He said the pressure by the group for his arrest and investigation is politically-motivated, adding that the incessant calls and smear campaigns against him started shortly before President Buhari nominated him as a minister-designate. In the letter titled: “SERAP’s Mischievous Misrepresentations Against Senator Godswill Akpabio”, the former lawmaker who represented Akwa Ibom Northwest senatorial district, listed the locations of the const

By UbongAbasi Ise Senator Godswill Akpabio and 42 other minister-designates will be sworn in on August 21, 2019 in Abuja by President Muhammadu Buhari to serve in his cabinet. In a statement  released yesterday, secretary to the government of the federation, Boss Mustapha, disclosed that the new ministers would be sworn in on Wednesday, August 21, 2019. President Buhari is expected to assign portfolios to the ministers in the coming days. The Senate had confirmed 43 ministerial nominees by the President in July 2019. While fighting the legal battle to reclaim the senate seat of Akwa Ibom Northwest district from Senator Chris Ekpeyong, the former governor was favoured as President Muhammadu Buhari included him in the list of 43-ministerial nominees, which he sent to the Senate for screening and confirmation. The president’s decision seems to have shocked Akpabio's critics and several allegations and petitions have arisen against him, ostensibly to stop his screening