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Akpabio, Ekere, Etiebet accuse INEC of complicity in polls, seek nullification

By Inemesit Akpan, Uyo
13 March 2019   |   4:12 am
Akwa Ibom State All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate in the just-concluded elections, Nsima Ekere has accused the Independent...

[FILES] Akpabio

Akwa Ibom State All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate in the just-concluded elections, Nsima Ekere has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of conniving with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to deny him victory.

He made these allegations while addressing journalists at his Uyo home yesterday.

He alleged that the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mike Igini in partnership the PDP cheated the APC at collation centres, saying that results from the party’s field agents showed that he won in 26 of 31 council areas of the state.

The former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) said his party had asked Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu to redeploy Igini, but all to no avail, stressing that such had not happened in the commission since 1999.

He noted that the result released by his party agents showed that APC won at the units, but was denied victory at the collation centres, promising to explore all necessary means to ensure that the mandate Akwa Ibom gave APC was recovered.

“Months before the election, the APC in Akwa Ibom had expressed reservations about the character of the state REC and we were hoping that INEC and the authorities had listened and changed the REC, but could not understand why it was difficult for them to make the change”, he said.

He said the situation was so frustrating for the party that he had no other option than to follow its call for rejection and cancellation of the March 9, 2019 exercise.

“I can tell you that we do not accept this. We reject the result announced by Igini and the returning officer for Akwa Ibom in its entirety,” he stated.

He, however, commended the Akwa Ibom people for their support for him and the party during the election, assuring that he would reclaim the mandate at the appropriate time.

Corroborating his views, Senator Godswill Akpabio and Atuekong Don Etiebet described the election in the state as sham.

They said they have endorsed the party’s stand on rejection and cancellation of the results as announced by INEC, adding that they would explore all legal means to retrieve the party’s mandate at the appropriate time.

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