The first official visit of the wife of the President, Aisha Buhari to Akwa Ibom State was Friday marred by a security breach caused by Senator Godswill Akpabio’s wife, Mrs Unoma Akpabio.
The incident occurred when Mrs Akpabio attempted to usurp the responsibility of the wife of the Governor, warranting the protocol officers from the presidency to wade in.
While the door of the aircraft opened and the First Lady Aisha Buhari made to start coming down, the Enugu-born senator’s wife suddenly sprang from her place to shove behind Mr Emmanuel, in order to be the one receiving Mrs Buhari to the state.
The senator’s wife had shoved aside the wife of the Governor of the State, who had been positioned rightfully by the presidential protocol team as the state’s first lady to receive the country’s First Lady formally into Akwa Ibom.
This led to the door of the aircraft being shut as the President’s wife retreated and waited inside for another 25 minutes before the senator’s wife was persuaded to stop further attempts to ridicule the state by her actions.
Once normalcy was restored, the aircraft doors were opened once again as Mrs Buhari stepped down to a warm embrace of Mrs Emmanuel who introduced her to other Akwa Ibom women at the airport to receive her.
Meanwhile some women at the airport expressed displeasure at Mrs Akpabio.
They recounted that no former first lady in the state came to embarrass her, throughout her tenure as first lady between 2007 and 2015, wondering why she is too power-drunk to forget that her tenure expired in 2015.