Security agencies in the country have been requested to investigate the allegation of murder levied against the President of the 10th Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, GCON, by his sister-in-law, Mrs. Patience Akpabio. The leadership of Ati Annang Foundation, the foremost socio-cultural organization in Annang nation, made the request in a statement issued Thursday in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State.

The group in the statement entitled, “Our Grand Patron – Senator Godswill Akpabio Is Not A Killer”, urged security agencies to invite Mrs. Pat Akpabio to provide “concrete and verifiable evidence to confirm her allegation on our leader and son.”

The statement jointly signed by Ati Annang President, Aniekpeno Mkpanang, and Secretary General, Akan-Mary Udo Esq., reads in part: “By our tradition and culture in Annang land we have respect for constituted authority and hold in awe and revere those among us that God by His benevolence and goodness has blessed and elevated, we respect family linage and ties, we hold in great and high esteem sacred traditional norms and values.

“The recent media vituperations filled with vile, uncouth, vulgar language by the said Mrs. Pat Akpabio and similar links on the social media, are to say the least a great deviation from our ways as a people strange to our culture and totally unbecoming of a person related, associated and inclined to us as a people.

“More worrisome is her blatant and malicious and unverified accusation of Senator Akpabio and wife of being responsible for several killings during is time as the Governor of Akwa Ibom State. This is a grievous allegation that must not be swept under the carpet. Senator Akpabio is not just an ordinary Annang person, but our leader, Akwa Ibom State Leader and the 3rd citizen of Nigeria. Therefore, any impingement on his integrity is an impingement on all of us.

“It is on this note, and as the popular legal maxim that he that alleges must prove and to help exonerate and clear the name of our revered Grand Patron and wife, that we representing the good people of Annang nation request the Inspector General of Police, Director of State Services and other security agencies to summon and or invite the said Mrs. Pat Akpabio for investigation in providing concrete and verifiable evidence to confirm her allegation on our leader and son. If she fails to prove this beyond reasonable doubt, then the course of law should be visited on her including a public apology on all the medium that she has used to malign and assassinate the character of our Senator Godswill Akpabio.”

Ati Annang in the statement described Senator Akpabio as “a very compassionate, humane and caring person who has contributed immensely in the upliftment of Annang nation and indeed Akwa Ibom State.”

“He thus therefore deserves the unalloyed loyalty and support of all well-meaning citizens in the onerous task of nation building that he has been vested on rather than any unnecessary distraction, blackmail and pull him down attitude. Enough is enough,” the group said.