Another aide resigns from Gov Eno’s cabinet

A wave of political tension is sweeping through Akwa Ibom State following Governor Umo Eno’s recent defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), with one of his top media aides, Chris Abasi Eyo, stepping down in protest.

Eyo, who served as the Honorary Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, announced his resignation in a letter dated June 16, which has since gone viral on Facebook and across social media platforms.

In the letter, he attributed his decision to the governor’s directive that all political appointees unwilling to join the APC should voluntarily vacate their positions.

“I am unable to align myself with the new political direction,” Eyo stated, adding that his decision was based on principle and loyalty to the ideals that brought the administration into office under the PDP banner.

Eyo is no stranger to the state’s political landscape. A former Commissioner for Information, he also played a key role as the spokesperson for Umo Eno’s 2023 governorship campaign.

“There has, undoubtedly, been an avalanche of reflections and reactions from various quarters concerning your ‘progressive move’ and the justification you have advanced in its support. Nonetheless, while the decision is clearly strategic, it is bound to leave in its wake a trail of political jetsams and flotsams,” Mr Eyo told Governor Eno in the letter.

He told the governor that he has “chosen to become a jetsam of the very ship I co-built”.

Mr Eyo’s resignation is coming a few days after the Commissioner for Special Duties and Ibom Deep Seaport in the state, Ini Ememobong, resigned from Mr Eno’s cabinet, citing a similar reason.

Mr Eno is the second governor in Nigeria’s south-south region to have defected from the PDP to the APC, after his counterpart in Delta State.

The Akwa Ibom governor cited the prolonged leadership crisis in his former party, the PDP, as the reason for his defection. He also said he wants to be free to campaign for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.