A political group, Defenders of Akwa Ibom APC (DAIA), has condemned the inauguration of a new state chairman for the Akwa Ibom chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu.

Obong Stephen Ntukekpo was inaugurated as state chairman on Tuesday.

However, the group in a statement issued on Tuesday expressed shock over what the development.

It said the national leadership of the party deliberately overlook a court injunction restraining the party from recognizing and inaugurating Obong Ntukekpo as the chairman of the party.

“What has happened is that the leadership of the party has started on the path of illegality and against the desire of the mainstream of the party.

“So long as there existed an injunction against the inauguration of Ntukekpo, it behoved the party’s leadership to have waited for the judicial process to run its course in order not to infringe on the right of everyone concerned and that is why we are especially pained by this development,” DIAA coordinator, Ibok Essein said in a statement.

DAIA expressed concern that elements from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were dictating the situation in the APC.

The group added: “We are concerned that the godfather of the Ntukekpo is the Minister of Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio, a man who as governor so much destroyed the progressives in Akwa Ibom.

“It is unfortunate that he has manoeuvred himself into our party and is now destroying our party from inside,” the group said.

The Star