The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Nsima Ekere, alongside Senator Godswill Akpabio and the APC caucus state chairman, Don Etiebet, have described the just-concluded governorship election in Akwa Ibom state as a charade filled with manipulation and falsification of figures.
Addressing some journalists in Uyo on Monday evening, the trio insisted that the state electoral umpire in collusion with the Peoples Democratic Patrt, PDP-led state government, manipulated the results at the collation centres in favour of the PDP, stressing that the APC won in 26 out of the 31 local government areas in the state.
According to Senator Akpabio, “The people voted at the polling units and APC won at the polling units and APC lost at the collation centres and the PDP supposedly won the elections.
“It is shocking when I saw figures being brandished on the television channels being at variance with what we had at the polling units. This shows that Nigeria is in trouble. The APC governorship candidate in the state, Nsima Ekere got Seventy three thousand votes in Essien Udim and all of a sudden the figure was changed and INEC gave him about 6,000 votes to APC and about 5000 to PDP.
Akpabio said he was not surprised that the results were upturned against his party since the Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC, Mike Igini, has allegedly shown signs of biasness and affinity with the PDP in the state right from inception.
He, however, described the state PDP victory as a purchased one saying that soonest APC would reclaim its victory in the state.
He further described the PDP victory as ephemeral as the APC would not leave any stone unturned in the state to wrestle its stolen mandate by engaging every legal means.
Speaking earlier the APC governorship candidate in the state, Nsima Ekere, who thanked the people of Akwa Ibom for voting him irrespective of the vote buying strategy of the PDP said the INEC ad-hoc officials were been compromised.
He, however, questioned the rationale behind the use of different guidelines to different units in conducting the elections noting that some local governments never used the card reader while card reader was used in other specified local governments.
He also expressed reservations that INEC at the national level refused to change the Mike Igini, the REC despite the petitions APC wrote pointing out instances of alignment with the PDP which the REC had shown both in speech and actions.
His words, “We have expressed our fears in the character of Mike Igini, he was far from being neutral. If the INEC chairman had listened to our plea to change the REC whom we never trusted, this high level of rigging would not have taken place.
“From 1999 election started in this country, RECs and other INEC staff, who have stayed long in a particular place are being moved around to ensure that they do not favour a particular party or allow their alliances to influence the conduct of the election. But that never applied in Akwa Ibom State.
In corroboration, the caucus chairman, Don Etiebet said he would join hands with the party to reclaim its victory.
Meanwhile the REC, Igini has insisted in different fora that he conducted transparent elections devoid of rigging or favoritism to any political party in Akwa Ibom State.
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