Senate Ticket: Akpabio Fights Back As Rival, INEC, Kick

The immediate past minister of Niger Delta Affairs  Senator Godswill Akpabio and former, DIG  Udom Ekpoudom have engaged in war of words over the ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC for the Akwa Ibom North West senatorial seat.

The Ekpoudom’s senatorial campaign organisation, in a statement titled:”Akwa Ibom NorthWest Senatorial district APC ticket: Matters Arising” and made available to newsmen on Sunday alleged that the senatorial primary that declared Akpabio candidate was illegal and unconstitutional.

But reacting, Akpabio  in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Jackson Udom advised  Ekpoudom to channel his annoyance of being placed on the off-side track of politics in the district, on the illegal contraption led by his factional state Chairman, Austin Ekanem and not pollute the media space with falsehood of a non existing senatorial ticket

The Ekpoudom Campaign Organisation in a statement issued by its director-general, Uwem Udoma, the Secretary General, Obong Godwin Etokakpan, and the  Director, Media & Publicity, Peter Udiong  noted said the party, didn’t put Ekpoudom on notice of the cancellation of his mandate or the primary that produced him as claimed by the Akpabio faction.

“The 2023 DIG Udom Udo Ekpoudom (Rtd) Senatorial Campaign Organization has observed an absurd, ridiculous and highly provocative conspiracy with respect to the APC Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial district Senate Primary election, validly won by Udom Udo Ekpoudom.

“Recall that Ekpoudom duly participated in the Akwa Ibom North West APC Senatorial District Primary Election held on Friday, May 27, 2022, in line with the 2023 Election timetable and guideline of our party.

“Succinctly, the primary election was properly monitored by INEC as constitutionally required and Udom Ekpoudom, was victorious and declared the winner and the party’s flagbearer.

” Sequel to the aforementioned, we want to state categorically and without any ambiguity, that at no time did our Party, the APC put our candidate, on notice of any cancellation of the primary election or that of conducting another Senatorial primary for the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial seat.

” We want to put it on record that the Mandate given to Udom Ekpoudom by the good people of Akwa Ibom Northwest senatorial district remains sacrosanct and is judiciously guarded and protected.

“Most importantly, the purported  scam election’ held on Thursday, 9th June, 2022 at the Skills Acquisition Centre in Ikot Ekpene is nothing but illegal, deceitful, unconstitutional, and legally defective.

“We hereby assure our party men and women and the good people of the Senatorial district that DIG Udom Udo Ekpoudom (Rtd), will under no circumstance, relinquish, withdraw or be substituted no matter the degree of pressure and inducement dangled  by anyone.

“He believes in the mandate, and in the mandate, he shall stand to provide leadership and accelerate development for the Senatorial district”

However, Akpabio’s Chief Press Secretary Jackson Udom while reacting said Ekpoudom only won non-existing ticket, because he belonged to Senator John Akpanudoedehe’s led faction.

 According to the statement the authentic  State leadership of APC in Akwa Ibom is the one led by Stephen Ntukekpo, therefore, all actions taken by him on the conduct of the party primaries at all levels, were known to law and remain the accepted position of leadership of the APC and the Electoral umpire.

“We have also read of how a self acclaimed ‘party member’ Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Udom Ekpoudom rtd, is laying claim to the senatorial ticket of the district, when he never took part in both the cancelled primary and the reordered primary.

“Udom Ekpoudom, is a bonafide and committed member of the Senator John James Akpanudoedehe Support Group, led by Mr Austin Ekanem.

“That contraption is not recognised by law, then national leadership of the APC, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as well as the leadership of the Akwa Ibom State chapter of the APC.

“Therefore, that contraption that purportedly conducted the senatorial primary, where Udom Ekpoudom, was allegedly declared a ‘winner’, is not known to law and he couldn’t have been said to have won the party’s ticket, because you cannot build nothing on nothing”

“We therefore, advise DIG Udom Ekpoudom (rtd), to channel his annoyance of being placed on the off-side track of politics in the district, on the illegal contraption led by Austin Ekanem and not pollute the media space with falsehood of a non existing senatorial ticket, not being for sale. Nobody will buy a fake, illegal and non existing ticket”, it added.

Recall that the Senator Akpabio led faction had conducted a re-run primary on the night of Thursday June 9, 2022 in Ikot Ekpene local government area, in which Akpabio emerged as the Akwa Ibom candidate for the Akwa Ibom Northwest senatorial zone after scoring a total of 478 votes out of 512 valid votes cast.

The faction had also noted that the re-run which was conducted due to cancellation of the first  primary election following security infractions.

Meanwhile, when contacted last Saturday the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Mr Mike Igini insisted that INEC recognises only the results of the senatorial conducted on 27th May, 2022 which puts Akpabio out of the loop of the APC ticket.

A statement obtained by GreenWhiteGreen GWG reads in part: ” INEC, Akwa Ibom State constituted a five-man monitoring team for each of the three Senatorial Districts and they all monitored the primaries as scheduled for the three Districts on that 27th May, 2022.

“The five-man INEC monitoring team for Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District duly monitored the Primary at the designated venue and submitted its report which showed clearly that Mr. Udom Udo Ekpoudom had the highest votes (of 338) and was declared the winner as the APC Candidate for that Senatorial district.”

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