Onna APC Chairman, Secretary, Woman Leader Returned In Consensus Election

By Esekong Essiet 
ONNA 
The chairman of All Progressives Congress, APC, Onna Chapter, Comrade Tom Nkanang, has been returned in a consensus APC Congress election in Onna Local Government Area.
The event, which took place at the Local Government Secretariat Hall, saw the secretary, Mr. Shedrack Ekpo and woman leader, Mrs. Inyene Bassey, returned for another term in office. 
  Also, 17 other old executive officers were returned in the smoothly determined consensus that had the high and mighty of Onna politics in attendance.
Setting the tone of the modalities adopted by the stakeholders and party players in Onna, the political leader of APC in Onna, Rt. Hon. Patrick Nathan Ifon, noted that anyone who could not make it back to the new Onna Chapter executive, should not see it as the end of the journey in politics, adding that the party, after the conclusion of all the congresses, will return to the round table in a meeting across all wards and weigh all the gray areas of the exercise and treat them accordingly.
The APC political leader highlighted a scenario where he always continued to support candidates of the party in elections despite himself being the loser in the contest.
The former National Assembly member further added that he waited patiently for his own time in every election until he was ordained to succeed at God’s appointed time, saying, “Everything has its own appointed time. Time to occupy a certain seat and time to vacate such a seat. In every season, there’s always time for a particular person. This time may be for you and some other time for some other person.
  “As you know, I was a local government chairman in Onna and after my time, several other chairmen have occupied the seat. For all of those years that I have been successful in politics, I have always exercised patience and waited for my own time. So if you are not lucky to continue in the Onna Chapter executive body, you will be compensated with something else”, he noted.
Ifon, who contested the chairmanship of Onna Local Government Council election and won against the tide, many decades ago, added that political players should not play politics as a do-or-die affairs, maintaining that the Onna APC thinktank adopted the party directive of consensus in the constitution of the new Onna Chapter executive committee.
  “We’re not doing anything contrary to the Party’s position in the conduct of the Onna Chapter Congress election. We consulted widely and arrived at a very acceptable position in solidifying our Party in Onna and we did that for the best interest of the Party in Onna.
   “Those old APC members should not see us who came alongside the governor as enemies but should qualify us as full members of the Party. We came to solidify the Party and to win elections and we should all work together to win elections for the Party”, Ifon said.
Inaugurating the new Onna executive, the APC returning officer for the Onna Congress election, Deacon Augustus Amos Nkuseying, noted that Onna has made his job simple and thanked the political players in Onna for making the exercise so seamless, pointing out that he was impressed with the oneness of Onna APC.
Nkuseying stated that out of the 12 Wards of Onna, none was averse with the decision of the constitution of the new Onna Chapter executive using the consensus tool, declaring that as the returning officer for Onna Chapter Congress, after a consensus agreement, he has returned the chapter chairman, Comrade Tom Nkanang and 26 others elected.
Speaking on behalf of the new executive officers, the chapter chairman of APC in Onna, Comrade Tom Nkanang, thanked the APC in Onna for the confidence reposed in him and his new executive. 
  Nkanang remarked that, before now, he has always been positive about the APC winning Akwa Ibom but with the new turn of events and with the calibre of people coming into APC in Onna, winning elections in Onna will be very simple.
He called for unalloyed unity among members of APC in Onna and as well, pledged to work with everyone to win elections for the Party.
Present at the event were the former member Eket/Esit Eket/Onna/Ibeno Federal Constituency, Rt. Hon. Owodighe Ekpoattai and husband Barr. Ime Ekpoattai; former member, Onna State Constituency, Barr. Ini Ikott; former member, Onna State Constituency, Hon. Bassey Willie; former member, Onna State Constituency, Hon. Godwin Oton; former chairman of Onna Local Government Council, Hon. Iniekpo Akpanekpo; former chairman of Onna Local Government Council, Bishop Ufot Sunday; former chairman of Onna Local Government Council, Mr. IniAbasi Ekanem; former vice chairman of Onna Local Government, Hon. Udouyotta Ebio and former state organising secretary of APC, Mr. Bassey Eshiet.
Others were the general manager/editor-in-chief of Akwa Ibom Newspaper Corporation, Mr. Umoette Umoette; chief press secretary to the governor, Mr. Ekerette Udoh; former NDDC commissioner representing Akwa Ibom, Hon. Samuel Frank; former Onna State Constituency APC candidate, Engr. James Eno; former leaders of Onna Legislative Council, Hon. Sylvester Ekanem and Hon. Godwin Morgan, among other dignitaries.