A PDP governorship aspirant and pastor in Akwa Ibom, Umo Eno, says he will win the 2023 gubernatorial election with the support of the people.

Mr Eno announced this on Thursday while speaking with journalists shortly after obtaining the N21 million expression of interest and nomination forms at the party’s secretariat in Abuja.

He said the people would support him because they believed in his capacity and vision.

“When people believe in your vision, believe in your aspiration, they will endorse it. Just like I am being endorsed, other people also have been endorsed. It is a normal thing in a political process,” he explained.

Mr Eno dismissed insinuations that his endorsement by Governor Udom Emmanuel would make the race for the party ticket difficult for other aspirants.

“Governor Emmanuel has many children, and it is only the governor that can tell the capacity of each of his children. His other sons will not know what has endeared me to him, but rest assured that the governor also has a choice to make,” he stated. “He has interviewed everybody, and as someone who is in office and who knows the enormity of the work to be done, you will understand that he must have done it (endorsement) from the information, intelligence and other things that are available to him.”

Meanwhile, professionals and businessmen from Akwa Ibom have condemned what they called the resort to smear campaign against Mr Emmanuel by a governorship aspirant “who is embittered over his rejection as the preferred successor to the governor.”

Under the umbrella of Professionals for Development in Akwa Ibom, the group stated this at a press conference addressed by its National Co-ordinator, Ufot Umoren, in Abuja on Thursday.

Mr Umoren advised the said governorship aspirant to desist from utterances and actions capable of threatening the peaceful co-existence of the people.

He added that the group would not hesitate to engage the said aspirant if he continued to drag the governor’s name through the mud for his “selfish reasons.” 

(NAN)