Leaked communication between Akpabio, late friend stirs controversy

“With this unexpected, unnecessary behaviour of you forwarding the private chats between you and your supposed friend and brother, Ufot Ebong, I have come to the conclusion that you are your only problem,” a member of Akpabio 2013 campaign said of the Senate president.

A leaked message from an ailing Akwa Ibom politician who received $35,000 from Senate President Godswill Akpabio for medical treatment has stirred controversy on social media, with some criticising Mr Akpabio for the leak.

The message was made public after the politician, Ufot Ebong, died on 4 October in a hospital in Uyo, Akwa Ibom. The ailment has not been disclosed to the public.

The private chat

“Thank you, Your Excellency, I’ve received $35,000. God bless you,” the late Ebong said in the undated private message he sent to Mr Akpabio via WhatsApp.

Ata Ikiddeh, a London-based Akwa Ibom man who is a close friend of Messrs Akpabio and Ebong, published a screenshot of the private chat on his Facebook page on 9 October.

Mr Ikiddeh served as an aide to Mr Akpabio on project monitoring when the latter was governor of Akwa Ibom.

The late Ebong, an engineer, was Mr Akpabio’s childhood friend and served as a senior special assistant to him when he was governor and later to his successor, Udom Emmanuel.

In the private chat, Mr Ebong prayed that God should help Mr Akpabio whenever he needed help with his health, politics, or family. He then informed him, “I’m in Room 113, Ibom Specialty (Hospital).”

Some people who reacted to the private chat being made public said the Senate President had exposed his late friend and the family to public ridicule, while others praised him for being there for the friend when he was ill.

“Oh Ufot Ebong, your private chat is in public space,” a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom, Michael Ekpo, wrote on Facebook on 9 October. “When the mighty fall!”

“Today, I have lost interest in politics,” Mr Ekpo said to a Facebook user who commented on his post.

One commenter told Mr Ekpo that the Senate President was only defending himself against blackmail.

“Was that really necessary?” Mr Ekpo responded to the man.

“This man is dead. Do you know the trauma you will put the family through? Do you know the security implications of publishing such an amount and what the family will go through because of the amount you just published?”

Another commenter said of the leaked chat, “Some people act before they think. How will someone publish such a chat just to score a point?”

‘You are your problem’

Zion Umoh, a member of Godswill Akpabio’s 2023 campaign team, said he was disappointed with the Senate President for allowing his aides to make public his late friend’s private chat with him.

“Dear Godswill Obot Akpabio, I should have been the person to publish that you gave late Ufot Ebong $35,000 after my long conversation with you, but I carefully refused to inform the public because the money was sent to Ufot Ebong when he was already dead on the inside while awaiting to be pronounced dead officially,” Mr Umoh said on Facebook on 9 October.

“With this unexpected, unnecessary behaviour of you forwarding the private chats between you and your supposed friend and brother, Ufot Ebong, I have come to the conclusion that you are your only problem and not Mrs Ekaette-Unoma Akpabio whom we thought was your major problem,” he added.

In defence of Akpabio

Mr Ikiddeh, the man who published late Ebong’s private chat on Facebook, admitted to PREMIUM TIMES on Friday that it is “ordinarily” unethical to publicise private communication but that there are situations that could override such consideration.

“For example, if a woman accuses you of rape and says you raped her, but you have personal chats to show that all you did that evening with her was take her out, have a drink and drop her off, and everything is on the chat, you are going to show that in court, and you are allowed to show that to the public,” Mr Ikiddeh argued.

He said making the chat public was a defence against the accusation on social media that Mr Akpabio has a history of abandoning his friends when they need help from him.

PREMIUM TIMES told Mr Ikiddeh that the accusation he was talking about did not come from the late Ebong’s family.

“Agreed. (But) Let me tell you, the post attracted thousands of views, hundreds of comments, how Godswill Akpabio had abandoned his childhood friend, Ufot Ebong,” Mr Ikiddeh said.

Although Mr Ikiddeh did not mention who made the initial Facebook post which accused Mr Akpabio of abandoning his late friend, PREMIUM TIMES found out that it was Mr Umoh, a member of the Godswill Akpabio 2023 campaign team, who did.

“So this was not a private chat the person was having with someone; he put this out in the public space. And so the question is: what did you want the Senate president to do? And the fact is the Senate president also has people around him who are concerned, especially at a time like this when his name has been rubbished and some unfair comments have been made about him on social media.

“This is a man who is known for his compassion for reaching out and helping people. Now, this was his own personal friend, a childhood friend of his. This was a serious indictment – that he helps other people but does not help the people who are close to him. There is a post that says it looks as if he enjoys attending the funeral of his friends and not helping them when they are crying out for help.”