The struggle for the soul of Akwa Ibom State come 2019 is becoming dirtier with an alleged plan by the opposition party in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC) to hijack protocols from the state government during the visit of the First Lady, Mrs Aisha Buhari, to the state today (Friday).

Information available to News Express has it that The Office of the First Lady had written to the State Government informing it of her visit, and the government is said to have made adequate arrangements befitting of her status and office. But suddenly, former governor, Senator Godswill Akpabio is alleged to have taken his personal vehicles to the DSS office in Uyo preparatory to the visit of the wife of the president.

“We have been rightly informed of this plan by Senator Godswill Akpabio to deliberately blackmail the state government by bungling the protocols of this visit, embarrass the State Government by creating a climate of odium and despair and thereafter rejoice over such failure. We will resist that,” a government house source told News Express this morning.

“The First Lady’s Office wrote to inform us of her visit to the state and it’s customarily and statutorily given that the state government would provide all arrangements, irrespective of what she is coming to the state to do, even if it’s a private visit.

“It’s even ironic that the Directorate of State Service, perhaps owing to inadequate briefing on acceptable protocols on such visits, has acceded to keeping vehicles from a private citizen or even a political party and other protocol breaches,” the source said.

“Whatever she is coming to do here (Uyo), she remains the guest of the State Government. We have informed Abuja accordingly. And she knows how it works, that is why she rightly wrote in advance to inform us that she will be coming to the state today (Friday).

“These people should know the limit of political grandstanding and separate rascality from established protocols,” the source added.

All efforts to reach officials of APC in the state for comments were not successful as at time of filing this report.