Gov Akpabio Under Fire Over 'Outrageous' Wedding Gifts to Tuface Idibia

Friday's presentation of two SUVs to Nigerian hip pop star, TuFace Idibia, and wife, Annie Macaulay, by Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio, at their traditional wedding, has got a lot of Nigerians railing at the profligacy of public officials.

Mr. Akpabio had stunned guests that thronged the Apostolic High School, Esit Urua Community venue, along Eket-Ibeno Road, for the traditional wedding of the celerity couple with the announcement of a donation of two brand new Toyota Prado SUVs to them.Click to see photos from 2face and Annie's traditional wedding

The lucky couple are also to travel in the luxury of the company of 29 delegates from Akwa Ibom to the United Arab Emirate, UAE, courtesy of the governor, who also promised to throw the state's treasury open to bankroll an all-expense paid trip for the white wedding scheduled for March 23 in Dubai.

The Eket-Ibeno Road, which has remained in a bad state for a long time, is to be fully rehabilitated before the next child dedication ceremony of the couple, the governor said.

Although a couple of loyalists commended the governor, commonly derisively called "the uncommon transformer" in the state, for his reckless spending of state funds, a cross-section of other Nigerians have described the gesture as "misplaced priority", "wasteful" and "abuse of public trust" in the management of state resources.

No official justification

The state Commissioner for Information, Aniekan Umanah, did not respond to calls and text messages by PREMIUM TIMES for official explanation regarding why the governor made the extravagant gesture in a state where salaries to civil servants are known to be consistently irregular.

A supporter of the governor, Egondu Okorie, was excited about the governor's gesture, expressing disappointment in his Facebook page at those he said were making "shallow minded comments", which he noted would not happen in civilized societies.

Another supporter, Ikazoboh Victor, blamed poverty for the comments by some of the governor's critics, who condemned the donation, saying that "there is no big deal about just two SUVs as wedding gift".

Source : Premium Time