Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State over the weekend stunned his audience, when he confessed on a live broadcast that he personally altered the result of a senatorial election result in the 2007 general elections.
Akpabio made this revelation while speaking during the visit of Good Governance Tour Team in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, Premium Times had reported.
Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, led the delegation made up of a number of government officials and journalists.
In his address, Akpabio, who had listed his achievements, later caused a stir, admitting that he removed names of the winner of the Akwa Ibom North senatorial primaries, and replaced with Aloysius Etok.
Senator Etok is currently the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service matters.
According to Akpabio, “The people of Ikono and Ini (Local Government Areas) from 1960 have never produced a Senator,” the governor narrated.
“I used my own hand to strike out the name of the person who had won before, and I said, it is important for me to give that region a Senator in 2007, and I produced Senator Aloysius Etok for you; that’s where he comes from.”
The statement generated indistinct murmurs among the bewildered crowd.
Minutes later, an aide to the Governor passed a note to his boss, ostensibly to call Akpabio’s attention to the comments he made earlier.
The Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party Governors’ Forum, then read the note and in a bid to retract the statement said, “So I must say that I thank all of you, including the members of the national assembly; led by Senator Aloysius Etok. And when I said that I made Aloy(sius Etok) to become a senator in 2007, I need to explain it so that you don’t think that I wrote his name and he became a senator,” the governor said.
“During the primaries of PDP, we zoned the senate seat to his federal constituency. And from the federal constituency, he made first in the primaries. That happened in the PDP. So we said since he was the first among the people who came from his federal constituency for the primary, then he must be the one to become the senator.”
“We presented him before the general public in the election and he won. And in 2011, with my support, he had the highest number of votes by any senator in the entire national Assembly,” he said.
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