Akpabio bows to pressure, to repeal Govs pension law

Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Chief Godswill Akpabio, promised, yesterday, to send a proposal to the state House of Assembly to expunge aspects of the amendment to the Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Law which put a N100m ceiling and a N50m ceiling on the medical treatment of former governors and former deputy governors.

In a statement yesterday entitled: ‘The siege of truth’, Governor Akpabio frowned at the condemnation of the amendment as well as the vilification of members of the Akwa Ibom House of Assembly for what he described as gross misunderstanding of the intention of the amendment of the law.

The governor berated critics of the amendment who he said have resorted to misinforming the public for political reasons. He said “in the last few weeks, truth has come under siege by agents of falsehood in Akwa Ibom State. The good people of Akwa Ibom State have been unfortunately subjected to the cruelest and most unkind political gimmickry in the history of our state over the amendment of a sixteen-year-old law. This tidal wave of propaganda, misinformation, lies, falsehood, mischief and cynicism, we fear, may already have sucked in some unsuspecting members of the public who lack the ability to appreciate the salient points of this law and its ennobling attributes.”

According to him, “regrettably, one of the best-kept secrets in the political scene in Nigeria is that in Akwa Ibom State some politicians do not circumscribe their activities within the limits of morality and decorum. Some of them can abase the most hallowed and sacred things for their selfish advantages. The present matter is a case in point.”