Akwa Ibom: Igini Never Instructed Me To Cancel Akpabio’s Votes -Returning Officer

By Our Correspondent

Media reports alleging that the votes obtained by Senator Godswill Akpabio in the Akwa Ibom North West Senate election were cancelled on the orders of Mr. Mike Igini have been rebuffed by the Returning Officer for Essien Udim local government, Dr. William Olosunde.

His rebuttal follows a news report in a major newspaper where Olosunde was quoted to have said Igini ordered him to cancel votes attributed to Akpbabio.

Igini, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC for Akwa Ibom State had been an object of hate for the APC and Akpabio who had accused him of being partisan against the party. Igini has repeatedly denied the claim and alleged that the bitterness was upon his refusal of entreaties from political actors to compromise the process.

Testifying on Monday at the National Assembly Election Tribunal, Dr. Olosunde said that he did not speak to Igini or interact with him before the final collation and did not get any instruction from him.

He sharply rebuffed the quotation attributed to him by the news report describing it as unfounded.

Asked by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s lawyer

Solomon Umoh (SAN) of his response to the media report that quoted him as saying that Igini asked him to cancel votes obtained by Akpabio, Dr. Olosunde said:

“My lord, I never at any point, anywhere, to anybody and even at this tribunal, said that Mike Igini asked me to cancel elections in some wards in Essien Udim.

“If anybody quoted me as saying that Mike Igini directed me to cancel election in Essien Udim, such a person is lying,”.

Observing that he only got to meet Igini at the point of collation, he said:

“I was told that my result was the one they were awaiting before going to Abuja, I entered and saw Mike Igini on the High Table, l announced my result and left. He never spoke or gave me instruction.”

Dr. Olosunde said he took responsibility for the cancellation of some results in the Senate election because they were not backed with polling booth results.

He said the election in the constituency was marked by violence and carting away of voting materials.

“Ikpe Annang was the first ward that we cancelled when Dr. David Edem came with the figures without any Polling Unit result, followed by Ukana West 1 and two others. I wrote it on the result sheet that the result could not stand since there were no units’ result to back the ward results brought for collation.”

 And For More Nigerian News Visit GWG.NG