Akpabio Confronts Igini … Teams Up With Ekere To Retrieve Mandate


By UbongAbasi Ise

The lawmaker representing Akwa Ibom Northwest (Ikot Ekpene) Senatorial District, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has spoken on certain malpractices he personally observed during March 9 polls in Akwa Ibom State, bringing up some instances as he questioned the credibility of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state, under the watch of Mr. Mike Igini, the Akwa Ibom Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC.
Senator Akpabio, while interacting with newsmen on Monday, said he was not surprised about the outcome of Saturday’s election as long as the umpire in the state showed in all circumstances, that he was not prepared to superintend over justice as far as the 2019 general elections are concerned. He maintained that his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, won at the polling units, but lost at the collation centres.
The former senate minority leader noted that the result of his polling unit was cancelled by INEC under inexplicable circumstance despite full usage of card reader in voters’ accreditation as well as the peaceful election atmosphere as induced by the presence of a commissioner of police and other security agents at his polling unit.
On the total number of votes scored by the APC in Essien Udim local government where he hails from, Akpabio queried 6,938 votes recorded for his party which won the local government area in the gubernatorial election despite the area having about 105, 555 registered voters. According to him, Essien Udim has not voted below 50,000 in any election since 1960 until the recent elections.
He said the local government area earlier polled about 73,000 votes for Obong Nsima Ekere, the APC gubernatorial candidate, but the number was pruned down to 6,938 on getting to Mr. Mike Igini’s office in Uyo. He promised to work with his party to retrieve the mandate, while leaving Igini to God.
“Imagine Essien Udim, my local government area; since 1960, we have never voted below 50,000. It is the most populous voting strength in Akwa Ibom State after Uyo local government area. It has about 114,000 people, and they said about 105,000 people received PVCs, and what was the result at the end? In my local government, we gave Obong Nsima Ekere 73,000 votes. How can you explain that a local government area with over 105,000 registered voters only voted 6000 at the end of the day? First result announced at the local government level was 73,000; they said no, there are some places card readers failed, and they reduced it to about 43,000 for the governorship candidate, and the House of Representative member got about 47,000, and then they raised his hand and said elected. Then they brought it to Uyo, in Mike Igini’s office. He started another round of collation, by the time it ended, he gave my local government with 105,000 voters 6,000 only. I will leave it to God, but for the vote I want to assure the people of the state, I will join with my party, the APC, to retrieve my mandate,” he said.
Senator Godswill Akpabio further alleged how Mr. Mike Igini, few hours to the commencement of the gubernatorial and the state house of assembly elections, brought in members of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, as collation officers, some of whom he personally recognized. He vowed to team up with Obong Nsima Ekere, who he said, won in 26 out of 31 local government in the state, to reclaim the mandate.
“Those who came to do the collation, I recognized some of them; I saw clear PDP members.  I never knew that they were actually collation officers from INEC but I knew them as PDP members. One of them contested this year’s primary election for the senate in Uyo senatorial district. I patted him on the back; I thought he was a party agent, but my mind was how could he be a party agent in my local government? The man come from Ibesikpo Asutan but I never knew that he was working there as an INEC official. He was wearing face-cap; when I entered, he was trying to hide his face, I just laughed. I recognized some of them. You don’t move a goalpost after the penalty had been blown.
“By 2.am, we received information that new collation officers had been appointed - few hours to the commencement of the exercise. The list that was published at INEC was gone, and new collation officers suddenly emerged. And 99% of the new collation officers were all PDP members and officials. Even the senior brother of the ‘House of Representative-elect’ in Abak in PDP was a collation officer in my ward.

“I don’t know why Mr. Mike Igini should come and be such a biased umpire. He said he fought for democracy, but I believe he is fighting to destroy the democracy, I will leave him to God, but in terms of the victory, I want to join the governorship candidate of our great party, the APC, who clearly won in the 26 out of 31 local government areas to say that we must employ all legal means to ensure that we retrieve this mandate.
“I stand with my party to say that we won election on the 9th of March; we won election in the 26 of the local government areas in Akwa Ibom but Mr. Mike Igini and his INEC did two sets of collation, one at the local government level after we’ve finished at the polling unit, another on at the INEC office,” said Akpabio.
He stressed how INEC went ahead to cancel elections in nine out of eleven wards in Essien Udim local government area, while questioning the basis of announcing the House of Assembly member-elect on result of only two wards.

©The Sensor Newspaper

Go Home for more news


>March 9 Polls: A’Ibom APC Spits On Results … Claims Victory In 26 LGAs … Calls For Cancellation To Avoid Breakdown of Law
>Blood Trails March 9 Polls In Ukanafun, Essien Udim … As Udo Kierian Allegedly Ruins Oruk Anam elections
>Electoral Fraud In Uyo! Councilor Indulges In Massive Vote-Buying For PDP … His Brother One of the INEC Ad Hoc Staff At CKS Polling Unit

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