Akwa Ibom State government has debunked a new story making the rounds that a new First Lady has emerged barely days after the demise of late Mrs. Eno, adding First Ladies are not appointed, as there has never been such a precedent before.
According to a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the state government, Ekerete Udo, “Our attention has been drawn to a misreporting by a section of the press on the appointment of Mrs. Helen Eno Obareki as the Coordinator of the Office of the First Lady, as well as her substantive appointment as the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor. We wish to set the record straight.
“It would be recalled that during the condolence visit by our Nation’s First Lady and Wife of the President, Distinguished Senator Oluremi Tinubu, CON, to Governor Umo Eno last Friday, the Governor had presented his daughter, Mrs. Helen Eno Obareki, as the “Coordinator of the Office of the First Lady” to the Wife of the President,” it added.
It further states that during the presentation, “The Governor was specific on the new title and role Mrs. Obareki would be expected to perform. He had stated that Helen, having worked closely with her mother in the Office of the First Lady, will now coordinate the activities and functions of the Office of the First Lady to ensure that her pet project, Golden Initiative for All (GIFA), and other initiatives the late First Lady was working on will be continued and expanded. Her new title is ‘Coordinator of the Office of the First Lady.’”
‘”We are, however, amused to see reports that stated the Governor had “appointed his daughter as the ‘New First Lady.’
“While we thank the press for the overwhelming support they have shown since the unfortunate passing of the Wife of the Governor, which the governor acknowledged in his State-Wide Broadcast last Friday, we again plead that they respect the privacy of the family at this moment of bereavement through their reportage,” it stressed.
Mrs. Obareki, the newly appointed ‘Coordinator of the Office of the First Lady,’ holds a Bachelor’s degree in Multidisciplinary Studies from the University of Oklahoma (2011) and a Master’s degree in Business Administration with special concentrations in Human Resources Management from Oklahoma Christian University (2012), United States of America.
