Ahead Of Rerun: APC Aspirants Demands Igini’s Sack, Trial

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By UbongAbasi Ise

The Aspirants Forum of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Akwa Ibom State Chapter, has called for the head of Barr. Mike Igini, the Akwa Ibom State Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, ahead of rerun elections scheduled for January 25, 2020.
While addressing a press conference in Uyo weekend, the state coordinator of the forum, Dr. Chris Enoch, expressed lack of confidence in Mr. Igini declaring that the REC must not conduct rerun election in Akwa Ibom State, linking him to unprofessional conducts and heavy bias against the APC before, during, and after the 2019 general elections. 
Dr. Enoch said Igini’s post-election utterances clearly demonstrated his dislike for the APC as a party, noting how the Akwa Ibom REC lampooned the aggrieved candidates of the party for complaining just to seek recognition for possible appointment from the president, adding that the forum feels “it was unbecoming of an electoral umpire who is expected at all times to register a high integrity score.”
He therefore called on the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Abuja, to redeploy Mr. Mike Igini or possibly sack him and his ilk in the commission and then post a new and impartial REC as well as principal staff to the state as this would inspire confidence in the electorates expecting the conduct of a free, fair, credible and acceptable rerun elections.
The state coordinator of APC Aspirants forum further called on Senator Godswill Akpabio to sue the INEC for accusing him on sponsoring thuggery in Essien Udim even after the appeal court ruling went in his favour.
He said no sane institution will allow Barr. Igini and his top officials at the Akwa Ibom State INEC to conduct further elections in the state, particularly, if any APC candidate is involved in the contest.
“It is no news that on the heels of the Appeal Court judgment on the case of Senator Godswill Akpabio, the candidate of the APC in the 2019 election for the Akwa Ibom North West senatorial district against the judgment of the tribunal in which Senator Akpabio got a favourable ruling, the spokesperson of INEC Akwa Ibom State as directed by Igini, issued a press statement in which Akpabio was vilified and frontally accused of having sponsored thuggery during the election, a claim INEC has not and cannot substantiate. 
“Such a wild accusation smacks of a devilish agenda to poison the minds of the electorates against Akpabio in his local government, Essien Udim, in which the rerun has been ordered by the appellate court and which is very strategic to Akpabio’s victory in the election and his final emergence as the Senator for the senatorial district. 
“INEC’s strategy in that press release is simply pre-emptive and to spoil things for Akpabio. This is too glaring even to escape the notice of the least discerning mind. We are calling on Senator Akpabio and APC to sue INEC for such malicious campaign and demagogue. This further buttresses the belief that INEC in the state holds Senator Akpabio in disdain and opprobrium. It is also a glaring prelude for a biased conduct of the rerun election in favour of Akpabio’s opponent. No sane institution will allow Barr. Igini and his top echelon of officials at the Akwa Ibom State INEC to conduct further elections in the state, particularly, if any APC candidate is involved in the contest,” the statement reads.
Speaking during the interactive session with journalists, Dr. Emaeyak Ukpong, the forum’s political advisor, said the call for Igini’s removal is not all about the election involving Senator Godswill Akpabio but also about the future elections, especially, as the national assembly has directed INEC to take over the conduct of local government elections. 

©The Sensor Newspaper







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