How I won Akwa Ibom rerun -- Senator

The newly-elected senator representing Akwa Ibom North-West, Chris Ekpenyong, has spoken of the intrigues involved in last Saturday’s senatorial rerun in Akwa Ibom.

Mr Ekpenyong was again sworn in as a senator at the start of plenary on Thursday by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan.

The lawmaker defeated Mr Akpabio on January 25 in a rerun election ordered by an Appeal Court. The elections held in Essien Udim LGA, Akwa Ibom State, over the weekend.

Mr Ekpenyong (PDP) scored 134,717 votes to beat Mr Akpabio (APC) who had 83,820 votes.

Mr Akpabio, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, is from Essien Udim.

Mr Ekpenyong, Thursday, narrated to journalists how he defeated the ex-governor. He said he won the election despite “efforts to manipulate the electoral system”.

He mocked Mr Akpabio for “contesting” an election without resigning.

Mr Akpabio had said he was no longer interested in a repeat poll, but INEC rejected a replacement of candidate.

How I defeated Akpabio

“The margin was obvious, I defeated him from the results that were announced, in nine out of 10 local government areas. I scored well over 134,000 votes but from the margin of errors and whatever was collated from INEC I was given 118,321 votes and he was also apportioned about 83,000 votes,” Mr Ekpenyong said.

“He took me to the tribunal and wanted the tribunal to cancel certain ward elections, he came with pseudo results which he actually cooked from his house, a total of 61,229 votes. He went to the tribunal with all manner of things, things that are unethical but the tribunal said it was unfair for it to refuse my victory.

“He went to the Court of Appeal, and on the 9th of November, Court of Appeal granted him a prayer he never sought for by asking that we should go for a rerun in his local government area which he inflicted mayhem on the people,” he said.

“When I was a deputy governor, he (Akpabio) was my commissioner. The fact that he became a governor was by accident because of our electoral process that is porous and thank God, I have come to meet the discussion on the Electoral Act amendment because I am going to contribute,” he said.

“If he was investing, go to Akwa Ibom, there is nothing. When you talk of uncommon, what is uncommon or because he is uncommon failure?”

The senator said he is optimistic about the electoral amendment bill.

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Mr Akpabio, in his reaction, disassociated himself from the violence and ballot-stealing during the Essien Udim rerun.

The minister’s spokesperson, Anietie Ekong, said the public should “ignore infantile propaganda linking Senator Akpabio to anything that is going on in Essien Udim LGA in the name of rerun elections”.

“We have gathered that some PDP-sponsored thugs were planning to carry out a sinister plot during the rerun elections and link it to Senator Akpabio.

“Security agencies should be on the watch out for miscreants and sponsored thugs, apprehend them and visit the full weight of the law on them,” Mr Ekong said in a Facebook post, Saturday afternoon.

Mr Ekong said the minister was in his house in Uyo, and not in Essien Udim, on the Election Day.

Mr Akpabio often describes his eight years tenure as Akwa Ibom governor as the era of “uncommon transformation”, the “best” in the history of the oil-rich state.

Efforts to get Mr Akpabio’s reaction were unsuccessful as he could not be reached via phone.

His media aide, Aniete Ekong, did not respond to calls and text messages sent to him.