…support colleagues’ suit in petition to National Chairman
…say Gov Eno’s defection has pushed original members to the background
By Nyakno Nelson
Founding members of the All Progressives Congress in Akwa Ibom State have written a strongly worded petition to the National Chairman of the party, warning that years of sacrifice are being ignored and that the treatment meted out to them since Governor Umo Eno joined the APC has become “unjust, painful and unpardonable.”
In a letter obtained by this newspaper and addressed to the APC National Headquarters in Abuja, the Forum of Akwa Ibom Aboriginal APC Members said thousands of loyalists who built the party from scratch are now being sidelined, and unless urgent steps are taken, many will walk away before the 2027 general elections.
The petition, signed by the forum’s President, Engr. Ifiok Diana-Abasi Umondak, Secretary, Samuel Asuquo Iyohokwa, and 13 other executive members, was also copied to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Governor Umo Eno, and the APC State Chairman, Obong Stephen Ntukekpo.
“We built the APC with our blood”
The group traced the roots of the party in the state back more than two decades, from the Alliance for Democracy between 1998 and 2006, through the Action Congress and Action Congress of Nigeria era from 2006 to 2013, to the formation of the APC in 2013.
“From the days of the now-defunct Alliance for Democracy, AD, (1998 -2006), Action Congress, AC, /Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, (2006-2013), to the now ruling All Progressives Congress, APC (2013 till date), most of us have remained faithful, surviving all political metamorphoses, mergers and realignments, yet remained unrewarded,” the letter read.
According to the petitioners, the commitment came at a personal cost. They told the national leadership that some founding members “built the APC virtually with their blood,” citing election-related violence that claimed lives and left others with permanent injuries.
They recalled a specific attack during the 2011 governorship campaign in Ikot Ekpene on Tuesday, March 22, 2011, when they said several ACN members were killed and many others were maimed.
“Ironically and to our greatest consternation, many of our members were hunted, arrested, incarcerated, while many were prosecuted and jailed with most of them still serving jail terms for an attack that our party was the victim,” the forum stated.
The letter also remembered the ridicule early members endured. “At the formative stage of the ‘opposition’ which has become a ruling party today in Akwa Ibom State, we were given derogatory names such as ‘houseboys/girls’, ‘street-sweepers party’, ‘hungry politicians’, etc, all in a bid to demoralize and discourage people from joining to build the party,” they wrote.
Fortunes reversed after governor’s defection
The group said the situation took a worse turn in June 2025 when Governor Umo Eno defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the APC alongside a bloc of PDP stakeholders.
“We cannot relieve here, Sir, all the pains and agonies our people went through being the major opposition political party in Akwa Ibom state up until June, 2025, when His Excellency, Governor (Pastor) Umo Eno defected from the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, to our party. The governor’s defection which supposed to be a blessing, is becoming the opposite as we the aboriginal members have been relegated to the background,” the forum stated.
Their grievances are specific. First, they alleged that no foundational member has received any executive appointment in the state since the defection. Second, they claimed that during the recently concluded party congresses, “aboriginal members who held sensitive positions in the party prior to the governor’s defection, were tactically replaced with new (PDP) members at all rungs of the Party’s Excos.”
Third, and most contentious, is the party’s handling of the 2027 primaries. The forum alleged that original members who bought Expression of Interest and Nomination forms, and who spent money consulting across their constituencies, were “painfully and brazenly disqualified and screened out without any reason whatsoever.”
“They were barred from contesting the just-concluded State Assembly primaries of the party. All serving members of the State House of Assembly who defected from PDP to the APC along with the governor were the only ones cleared to contest the primary even against laid down zoning principles in most Constituencies,” the petition added.
The group further expressed anger that some of the people who, according to them, were involved in the persecution of APC members between 2009 and 2023 are now the ones occupying “juicy positions in the party,” while the original builders have been “mockingly forced to the doldrums.”
Court action and appeal to national leadership
Three of the affected aspirants have now taken the matter to court. The forum named them as Dr. Uko Asian Johnson from Nsit Ibom State Constituency, Nsunwara Blessing Osung from Oron/Udung Uko State Constituency, and Noah Samuel Okon from Nsit Ubium State Constituency.
The case, with suit number FHC/UY/CS/104/2026, is before the Federal High Court in Uyo. The applicants are challenging what they described as their unlawful disqualification from the APC primaries for the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly in the 2027 elections. Respondents in the suit include the APC, INEC, and two others. The petitioners are asking the court to declare the disqualification unlawful and to invalidate the results of the 2026 APC State Assembly primary. The matter has been adjourned to September 24, 2026.
The forum said the three aspirants “represent hundreds of thousands of the sidelined foundational APC members in Akwa Ibom State” and “must be commended rather than vilified for towing the legal path towards correcting the injustice meted against them when efforts to explore internal party organs failed.”
In their prayer to the national chairman, the group asked for direct intervention with the state leader of the party. “We therefore passionately appeal to you, our dear National Chairman, to use your good offices to impress upon the APC State Leader and Governor of Akwa Ibom State; His Excellency, Pastor Umo Eno to listen to the voice of reasoning and get their grievances resolved justly,” the letter stated.
As a possible solution, the forum suggested that the party “consider concessioning at least three (3) State Assembly APC tickets during the substitution window, to the aggrieved aspirants who are in court in order to assuage thousands of APC Aboriginal members and supporters to have a sense of belonging and also to strengthen our faith in the ‘Akwa Ibom United’ mantra of the State governor.”
Warning of an exodus
The petitioners warned that the continued marginalization is already having consequences. “These injustices and inhumane treatments have so far driven many foundational members out of the APC into other political parties,” they said.
As of press time, the APC National Secretariat in Abuja and the Akwa Ibom State chapter had not issued any official response to the petition.
With the 2027 elections less than two years away, the grievances of the aboriginal APC members have added a new layer of tension to the party’s internal politics in Akwa Ibom. Whether the national leadership will intervene to reconcile the old guard with the new entrants may determine how united the APC goes into the next electoral cycle in the state.
