Tony Okoh || Members of the foremost socio political group in Akwa Ibom State that spear- headed the election of Mr. Udom Emmanuel as the governor in 2015, Transformation Initiative For the Empowerment of Ibom People, TIEIP, on Saturday received handsome reward for their loyalty and support during and after the elections of the Governor.
The chairman, Board of Trustee of the group, Akparawa Ephraim Inyang who stood in for the Governor doled out cash gifts to members of the group ranging from elders, men, women, and youths across the 31 local government areas of the state.
The empowerment programme which took place at Akparawa Ephraim Inyang’s country home in ONNA Local Government Area, also covered members from Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Cross River states chapters.
Akparawa inyang-eyen explained that the gesture was Governor Udom Emmanuel’s way of appreciating the entire membership of Transformation Initiative for the confidence, trust, and commitment shown to him and his administration since 2015.
According to Akparawa Inyang, the empowerment packages was to also give back to the people, especially those who kept faith with Mr. Udom Emmanuel when there was nothing to give out, noting that the seed money will go a long in addressing some financial challenges among the benefiting members of the group.
He recalled the role played by Transformation Initiative as one of the leading groups in the state that drummed support for Mr. Udom Emmanuel in 2014 before his emergence as governor in 2015, stressing that the empowerment programme was to reciprocate the group’s support, hard work and the confidence reposed on the governor few years ago.
Akparawa Inyang who is also the state commissioner of Works, therefore, urged members of the group to continue to support and encourage Governor Emmanuel’s led government in his quest to serve Akwa Ibom people better.
The Works commissioner used the occasion to announce the immediate dissolution of the group leadership structure nationwide, explaining that the decision was for the purpose of restructuring, repositioning and re-engineering the group for efficiency and enhanced productivity come 2019.
The BoT chairman disclosed that, hardworking members will be given another opportunity to be selected into the new leadership structure of the group while new members will also be injected into the fold before the 2019 election year, adding that the second term bid of Governor Emmanuel will not be a difficult issue because there are evidence of live touching infrastructure projects evenly spread across the state.
On his own the speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Barr. Onofiok Luke in his goodwill message thanked Gov Emmanuel for rewarding members of the group who toiled and laboured for his emergence as the governor in 2015.
Barr Luke added that such gesture will go a long way in encouraging other members of the public to be committed to a noble course such as the reelection mandate of Mr. Udom Emmanuel in 2019, bearing in mind that their labour will not be in vain.
The speaker thanked Akwa Ibom people for believing in Mr. Udom Emmanuel capacity to lead the state peacefully in the midst of dwindling resources occasioned by the harsh economic recession and urged them to continue to keep faith with the present administration in the state beyond 2019 for more democratic dividends.
Present at the event were political class, top government functionaries, captains of industries among many other personalities.