Akwa Ibom State Independent Electoral Commission (AKISIEC) has denied a viral video on social media indicating that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had won the Local Government Chairmanship position in Essien Udim Local Government Area.

The chairman of the commission, Mr Aniedi Ikoiwak, denied the report in an interactive session with a section of the media in Uyo.

In the viral video, one Professor Atting, who claimed to be the Returning Officer (RO) in Essien Udim LGA presented a result that read that the PDP candidate, Enobong Patrick Friday, won the election with 55,612 against the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Mr. Ntiedo Usoro Effiong, who allegedly scored 686 votes.

Debunking the report, Ikoiwak explained that he had received a report from the Assistant Electoral Officer (AEO) that the Electoral Officer sent to the area had absconded with ballot materials sent to the council area and had to hurriedly send the AEO back with necessary materials to conduct the election and submit the result.

Contrary to the name on the video given as Professor Atting, Ikoiwak said the Returning Officer (RO) for Essien Udim in the election was Prof. Uduak Okon of the Department of Medical Sciences, University of Uyo.

He said the poll result was 51, 751 for the APC candidate, while the PDP candidate scored 22, 799 votes. Consequently, the APC candidate was declared winner.

“The man who claimed to be the returning officer in Essien Udim was not on the list of appointed Returning Officers for the Saturday’s exercise, the winning margin by the PDP candidate on the video was too overwhelming to have denied the winner and his supporters did not revolt,” he said.

“It was when they discovered that the what the Polling Officer did in Essien Udim was discovered by AKISIEC, that they horridly went to somewhere in Ewet Housing, to do the video, using drivers and unidentified persons as their crowd to present what they presented to mislead the public.

“By the time they brought their result, they were told that Essien Udim’s result was already filed and I had insisted that results must be recorded on form 08D and that is what was accepted from all the LGAs.”

The commissioner stressed that he did everything within reach to ensure free, fair, and credible exercise.

“All monies needed were released since on Thursday but we discovered it was held on by Zenith Bank because of poor network hence the late arrival of materials in some areas.

“To ease the process of elections, voter registers were printed and posted in all the polling units in the state. As at 10pm on Saturday, we had received 10 results, nine were won by PDP while one was in favour of APC. When we sent it for broadcast on Inspection FM, they told us that the station had closed for the day and would resume at 7:00 am on Sunday. That is why the video went viral before our report.”

The commissioner commended the state governor, Pastor Umo Eno, for providing leadership that led to the outcome of the election.