AKWA IBOM GUBER: APC’s Nsima Ekere vows to reclaim mandate

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State, Obong Nsima Ekere on Monday vowed to reclaim the mandate voters in the state gave him.

Ekere was reacting to the declaration of Governor Emmanuel Udom of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the winner of the governorship election held on Saturday in the state.

Ekere stated this while speaking to journalists at his residence in Uyo, adding that Akwa Ibom people voted for the APC in spite of plots by the PDP to woo them with money.

According to him, he and his party rejected the result announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, under the leadership of Mr Mike Igini, because the results did not correspond with the results declared at the polling units.

He said: “Akwa Ibom people shunned those monies, came out in their hundreds of thousands to vote for me and other APC candidates In the governorship and House of Assembly election held on 09 March.

“And we were speaking to all our agents in the 2,980 polling units in Akwa Ibom state and the results we got as election was going on and at the end of counting in each of the polling units across the state showed clearly that Akwa Ibom people had embraced change; they showed clearly that they wanted APC.

“And the results showed that APC won in the 26 Local government areas of the state. We have the results of the polling units already to confirm this”

The APC candidate also explained that his party do not understand how Mr. Igini the Resident Electoral Commissioner and the staff of INEC managed to come out with the results that were now coming out from the collation centers because they were different from the results from polling units

Continuing, Ekere said APC was dismayed that against the provisions of the electoral act and guidelines released by INEC, that there were no collations at the ward centres in the state.

“I will like Mr. Mile Igini to explain to Akwa Ibom people and to the whole country why he chose to make his own guidelines for the elections different from the guidelines that was released by the INEC.

“The resutls from the collations according to Mike Igini were totally different from the results that were obtained from the polling units across the state.

“We did not know how they did their collation, maybe they had a different model for collation different from what is known and acceptable for electioneering all over the world.

“But generally I want to thank the people of Akwa Ibom people for the massive support which they had given to the APC and the way they had voted overwhelmingly for APC and for myself in the last election and to assure them that by the grace of God we shall recover the mandate which they freely gave to the APC using the appropriate channels that are available and known to Law” .

The candidate, who said that though the REC was expected to be neutral, insisted that “but his conduct and the things he had done both in the presidential and national assembly election and the gunernatorial and state House of Assembly election has confirmed our fears.

“And we actually find it so difficult to understand why it was so difficult for them to make that change. From 1999 every election year, Resident Electoral Commissioner’s and staff of INEC who had been resident in a particular state for a long time were always moved around.

“That way you are sure that they will not come and allow their alliances and friendship developed in that state over the period they had stayed there to influence their conduct. But surprisingly INEC refused to do this and this is the first time this is happening.

”They allowed Mr. Igini to frustrate the wishes of Akwa Ibom people. And this is most unfortunate. And I can tell you just like my party did during a press conference in the morning, we will not accept this the results.”

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