The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari, on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, has said that the results of the February 23rd Presidential and National Assembly elections never reflected the reality in the state.
He stated this on Friday at his Ewet Housing residence in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state alleged that the results were manipulated by the Peoples Democratic Party in collusion with the Independent National Electoral Commission in the state.
Enang, who is also the Director-General of the APC Campaign Committee, said, though he personally avoided casting aspersions on INEC in the state, but the last Presidential and National Assembly polls were the lowest in rating in terms of credibility.
He said, “I have in the course of this campaign try to personally avoid castigating the INEC, I have aligned myself with all the complaints that we as a party made against the Resident Electoral Commissioner and I have thought that in the course of the elections he would display what I thought I knew about him in terms of integrity.
“The last election of February 23 in the state was the worst that I could credit to Resident Electoral Commission in Akwa Ibom State. I held him better than that but it is very disappointing that he descended too low to the arena of the election.
“There were a lot of irregularities, several efforts at rigging and the results produced in Akwa Ibom state did not reflect the true voting and the will of the people of the state.”
He urged the teeming supporters of the party not to be discouraged by the results but to maintain their faith in the party and come en masse to vote PDP out of power in the state.
Enang, who used the occasion to congratulate President Buhari on his re-election for another term of office, said Buhari’s victory should strengthen the people to keep faith with the party.
According to Enang, the situation would have been different if the President had not won the Presidential poll adding that every APC state has appropriate relationship with the federal government at the level of projects executions and appointments.
He assured the teeming supporters of the party that though the level of compromise during the last elections was complex it was being addressed.
“You can feel it that the spirit of the party is high and everybody knows what happened during the last election in the state. I kick against the vote buying strategy of the PDP. The way the PDP had, sacrilegiously dealt with the treasury in this state, buying vote at great amount and have nothing to show on ground.
“Money they ought to have used to pay for pensions, school fee and bursary of students, build and complete some infrastructural projects but they were used for buying of votes.”
