Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State will be heaving a sigh of relief as he has been cleared of any involvement in the alleged assassination plot on Senator Aloysius Etok of Akwa-Ibom North Senatorial District and Chairman, Senate Committee on Establishment, Public Service, State and Local Government Affairs after the Department of States Security Service, on Monday, paraded a 29-year-old graduate of Mechanical Engineering, Mr Adelola Olaore of being behind the plot.
The secret service, while parading the suspect who graduated from Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port-Harcourt, claimed that the suspect had called Senator Etok claiming he had been contracted by Governor Godswill Akpabio’s loyalists to assassinate him.
The suspect introduced himself to the senator as “General Africa”, an ex-militant from Bayelsa State. He then told the lawmaker that he had been contracted by three of Governor Akpabio’s loyalists to assassinate him.”
Ogar said, “In order to convince the Senator, he offered to furnish him with details of the Governor’s purported Bank Account and energy company in South Africa. But he confessed that he had never met Governor Akpabio, the Commissioner for Environment, or Kenneth Okon, also known as Wayas, the Chairman of Etinan Local Government Council.
“He said he hatched the plot to defraud Senator Etok, using information he obtained from open media about a rift between the senator and the governor, which the senator accepted. He then requested for transport fare to Akwa-Ibom where he intended to initiate the peace meeting between both parties.”
The SSS said that immediately the Senator alerted them on the development, he was asked to play along until he was arrested on April 28.
The SSS Deputy Director, Public Relations, Ms Marilyn Ogar, who paraded the suspect, said that as soon as investigation was concluded, he will be charged to court.
She added that the suspect came up with the phantom assassination plot to fraudulently extort money from Senator Aloysius Etok by exploiting the perceived rift between him and Governor Godswill Akpabio.
While confessing to the crime, the suspect, who broke down in tears intermittently, claimed that he had gone to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) office in Port-Harcourt to submit a mail where he saw a mail bearing Senator Etok’s complementary card, from where he obtained the Senator’s number.