Why Akpabio Can’t Fly APC Senate Ticket – INEC

The quest by Senator Godswill Akpabio to contest the 2023 Akwa Ibom Northeast Senate seat on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC has been ruled as untenable under the provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC for Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Mike Igini in an interview affirmed that the second primary that produced Akpabio as the APC senatorial candidate was against the procedure of the new Electoral Act.

Even more and in a warning to political actors, Igini said that unlike the previous Electoral Acts that the 2022 new electoral law does not allow the substitution of candidates.

He spoke following the second primary conducted by INEC which produced Akpabio as a candidate.

GreenWhiteGreen GWG reports that the two factions of the APC in the state had conducted parallel primaries. The INEC had monitored the primary which produced DIG Udom Ekpoudom as candidate.

He affirmed that Ekpoudom remains the candidate and the only way to change is for the candidate to withdraw or by reason of death.

In the interview with a local radio station, explaining why Akpabio cannot get the APC Senate ticket, the INEC helmsman said:

“By virtue of Section 31 of the 2022 Electoral Act, the only way somebody can be replaced in any form is that we no longer have substitution by political party. What you have now is withdrawal by individual or nominee and or death. The law is not saying you should go and kill people so that you can have yourself on the ballot. No. The law is saying that those who have emerged at all levels up to the presidential level, you can decide that you are no longer interested. You can write an application signed by yourself, delivered to your party who will now deliver to INEC but nobody can shave the political head of another person in his or her absence”.

“The report of the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District APC primary as submitted to INEC headquarters in Abuja is final. It is concluded. The train has left the station. The timeline is clear. All those who are in politics should go and study the 2022 Electoral Act very well. I hear people taking about substitution. If you look Section 31 and Section 34 of the Electoral Act, those of you who are still carrying the old idea of the 2010, 2012 Electoral Act in your head, thinking you can substitute willfully, it is no longer so”.

Continuing, he said, “Then number two is only in the case of death. Even at that, there will now be a fresh primary. This is the new law. So what we are seeing going on is clearly a misnormer. The rerun can only be conducted between and among those who participated in the first Senatorial election of May 27, 2022 and the Senatorial primary for Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District was not canceled, was not nullified, was not inconclusive. It was conclusive, it was concluded and the report was written and it is final because you cannot reopen that anymore”, he declared.

He explained that on the 27th of May, 2022, the APC Senatorial primary held in only two out of the three Senatorial districts of the state; Akwa Ibom North West and Akwa Ibom North East while nobody showed up at the venue for the Akwa Ibom South Senatorial primary.

Giving further details of the Senate battle between Akpabio and his rivals in the APC and the role of INEC in the primary, the INEC boss said:

“Out of the three Senatorial districts, we had election conducted in two, the North West and North East Senatorial districts where DIG Udom Ekpoudom emerged as the winner of the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District which we wrote our report. Interestingly, the Head of INEC’s Legal Team in Akwa Ibom State was the one who led the team for that of Akwa Ibom North West and they wrote the report and the report had been concluded on the 27th of May, 2022”.

Giving more insight into the Akpabio affair, Igini said:

“the Senatorial election primary was concluded on the 27th of May and the report had been kept there (Abuja) since. On Thursday, June 9, 2022, we were in Abuja holding a meeting at INEC headquarters on how to deal with the current situation about voter registration and the good news is that I have brought more machines to Akwa Ibom”.

“By 7pm, I got information that the APC will send a letter that they want to do a rerun Senatorial election and that was shocking to the Commission. Abuja was surprised, we were surprised. A rerun election? First and foremost, a rerun has a technical meaning in election management. A rerun means that election was either cancelled, was inconclusive and you have to do a rerun.  And in any rerun, it must be between those who were part of the first election”.

“The question is, Senator Godswill Akpabio, was he an aspirant on the list on the 27th when election for the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District was conducted? He was not there. We all know that he has been a presidential aspirant up to the last day of the APC convention in Abuja. That was what he participated in”.

“To now say that an individual will conduct a primary for himself, by himself, won by himself, Oh my God! We are ridiculing our democracy. We are showing to the world that we don’t have a system. We are showing that we are a permissive society, that indeed the rule of law means nothing in our country. As at the time INEC report was written, Godswill Akpabio was not an aspirant. We didn’t write a report because of Akpabio as some people are just talking nonsense”, he declared.

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