Another aide to Akwa Ibom governor resigns

Mr. Chris Abasi Eyo, a media aide to the governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno, has resigned from his position following the governor’s recent defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mr. Eyo, who served as Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, announced his resignation through a letter dated June 16, 2025.

In the letter, he cited the governor’s instruction that all aides unwilling to join the APC should voluntarily step down from their roles in his administration.

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

However, Eyo’s resignation is coming 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.

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