Dozzier News Dozzier News
The Akwa Ibom Christian Assembly, ACA, has thrown its weight behind the candidate of the Young Progressives Party, YPP, in the 2023 governorship election in Akwa Ibom State, Senator Bassey Albert Akpan, snubbing Governor Udom Emmanuel’s preferred candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Pastor Umo Eno.
ACA is renowned as a strategic and influential religious group in the state. Members of the group, comprising different churches and their leaders spread across the 31 local government areas of the state, approved the endorsement of Senator Albert a.k.a OBA on Sunday at a general prayer meeting for the forthcoming election, held Destiny International Missions, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
At the prayer meeting, the President of ACA, Archbishop Cletus Bassey said: “I’m standing here because this is where God called me and this altar has never sold me out. Our action is borne out of conviction, and not because of financial influence or bargain”.
Bassey charged the leadership of ACA across the 31 local government areas of the state and the Akwa Ibom people to vote conscientiously during the election, and particularly for the YPP cand, adding that it would pay in the end.
“This is no time to collect money and sell your conscience. It is not the time to allow invaders like wolves and vultures to invade our land and take that which is ours. It is not the time to count in dollars or go after monies that cannot pay your rent and take care of your children. It is the time to decide for what is just and true”, he declared.
Maintaining that ACA was not against anybody or their ambition, the former Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Akwa Ibom State chapter, stressed that they were only pitching their tent with their preferred candidate.
“Every man has the right to choose whom they want to support, and so do I. So, we don’t need anybody’s money. This is not the time to lie against the very visible truth that we have seen”, he insisted.
According to Archbishop Bassey, the decision of the Akwa Ibom Christian Assembly to support Senator Albert for the governorship position would neither be challenged nor reversed by threats from the powers that be.
“I know the threats that I’ve gotten. I know the plans for the kidnap. I’ve heard about those who have been assigned to make sure that I am shot, and I have heard of all those plans and their intentions against me; but He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty and He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world”, he boasted.
Surrounded by other archbishops, bishops, apostles and ordained ministers, Archbishop Bassey enclosed the YPP governorship candidate and his wife, Imaobong Bassey Albert, in a session of barrier-breaking prayer on the church’s altar, and declared them victorious at the poll.
The prayer meeting featured series of prayer for the election, the incoming government and the peace of the State. It was anchored by anointed ministers including Bishop Akan Weeks, Pastor Angela Ashong, and Bishop Offong, the Methodist Bishop of Ikot Abassi, among others.
