we shall continue to fight against poverty- Peter Akpanke

 The founder of The Akpanke Foundation has sent a strong message to his detractors through his personal Facebook Handle ‘Peter Akpanke’. The philanthropist who has been offering help to people through his foundation has been a topic of discussion by perceived Political opponents due to his increasing popularity within his Obudu/Obanliku/Bekwarra Federal constituency.

Akpanke wrote;

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
“In the recent past, just for the fear that I may be nursing a political ambition, my name has become the Chewing Stick in many lips, machinated by some people who are threatened by my towering image which is predicated on my track record of goodwill, which is publicly acknowledged and applauded.

“For inexplicable reasons, some people have widely and wildly undertaken to smear my good image and assassinate my character in order to most probably alter the current positive impression people have of me by which they rate me highly and hold me in high esteem.
For instance, I have been labeled or branded as a petitioner, a fraudster, an anti government person, and other sundry despicable epithets. I pray God to forgive those who are perpetuating such antics against me.

Howbeit, it is pertinent to state as follows:

1. I am not, have never been, and will never petition anybody or organ. I have more rewarding and life fulfilling opportunities to appropriate than to engage in such inglorious and dastardly indulgence. It is a an established practice that anyone who is petitioned at any level and at anytime, has the right to demand for a copy of the petition from the organ or agency to which he/she is petitioned, to ascertain the petitioner. On request, both the petitioner and the petitioned could even be brought together by the agency for interface on the issues raised in the petition, to either authenticate or debunk the allegations. This is the edifying thing that responsible people should do instead of resorting to conjectures and unfounded blackmail, which is tantamount to what in our local language is coded as deliberate avoidance by someone of the itching part of his body to rather scrub an innocent part. The truth remains the truth and will unfold one day.

1. I am not an anti government person. I have never opposed any government programme at anytime and anywhere. If anybody in government or anyone related to those in government feels that blackmailing me before his supposed masters is the only recipe for him/her to sustain his/her meal ticket, I leave him/her to God. The truth remains the truth and will unfold one day.
2. I am entitled to my opinion and desires. In this wise, whether I have any political ambition or not is personal to me. So, nobody should lose sleep about it. God alone holds everybody’s future, and nobody can play God. People should rather channel their energy to creditably execute and deliver on the people’s delicate mandate entrusted to them than dissipating energy to plot against me for my seeming political ambition, which is already feared even when it has not been formally declared.
3. As a responsible and committed indigene of Obanliku LGA, I have no regret whatsoever and I owe nobody any apology for my irrevocable stance that it is the turn of Obanliku to produce the next representative of our Federal Constituency in 2023. It mustn’t be me, but it must be an Obanliku person. If this my stance is what is causing somefriends and other agents of hegemony sleepless nights and rumbling stomachs, it’s their cup of tea and I am not perturbed. Power comes from God and only God has the power of anointing.
4. For my friends, who are disappointed that because they have attained certain heights and are seemingly calling the shots, yet I am not depending on them for sustenance, I forgive them for their ill wish for me. If they are looking for beggars, they should please look elsewhere. They already have enough bootlickers. I can’t be one of them. God knows that just as there was yesterday and there is today, tomorrow is also certain.
5. It’s inglorious to begin to stage people to disrupt even my social life. I wonder why anybody should be disturbed by the social functions I attend, what role I play in such functions, and go ahead to surreptitiously and unabashedly plot to distort my convenience in such functions. I also know the extent to which some of my supposed friends have gone to block me from my genuine livelihood. This disruptive style is ridiculous and uncalled for. I have never and will never constitute a clog in anybody’s wheel. Let’s all live and allow our lives to speak for us. Before you invent any negative stories about me, first do YOURSELF the desirable favour of telling your own positive story. The misfortune in the whole is that both you inventing stories about me and I are not strange to those you are inventing the stories to impress. So, they know some truths about us, which can’t be obliterated by your sudden story.

“As a Foundation founded on God’s Act of Charity, we shall continue to fight against poverty, ensure business support, make meaningful livelihood for our youths No matter whose Ox is gored.
As pencil in the Hands of our Creator we intend to make positive writings before we are been erased by the Maker Himself.
IT IS WELL AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE WELL.”

Mr. Akpanke has been a loud voice in the agitation for the return of the House of Representatives position to Obanliku due to the marginalisation of the LGA in the Federal constituency.