The Independent National Electoral Commission in Akwa Ibom State has revealed that the All Progressives Congress governorship primary did not hold in the state.
This is coming as Akanimo Udofia, who recently defected from the Peoples Democratic party to APC was declared the winner of the APC governorship primary.
Udofia scored scored a total of 1,227 votes to defeat eight other governorship contenders including senator Ita Enang, the immediate past Senior Special Assistant to the President, Major General Mohammadu Buhari (retd), on Niger Delta Affairs.
But a report sent to the INEC headquarters in Abuja, the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mike Igini, a copy of which was made available to our correspondent in Uyo, maintained that the governorship primary scheduled for Thursday May 26,2022 did not hold at all.
The report read in part, “We wish to report that the APC governorship primary scheduled to hold on Thursday, May 26, 2022, at the Sheer grace Arena, Nsikak Eduok Avenue, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State did not hold at all,”.
The report further stated that the commission’s monitoring team, led by Mr Igini, in the company of the Commissioner of Police in Akwa Ibom, Andrew Amiengheme, arrived at the venue of the primary for the third time at 6:45 p.m., without seeing anyone.
It was gathered that while a faction of the party loyal to Senator Akpan James Udoedege was conducting its primary at the Sheer Grace Arena, the faction loyal to Senator Godswill Akpabio, was having it own at Okpo Obot street, Uyo, the state capital.
Meanwhile, Senator Ita Enang, one of the aggrieved governorship aspirants in the state, has petitioned the National headquarters of the party and the election committee
In the petition letter to the chairman, APC Gubernatorial Appeal Panel, Akwa Ibom state titled, ‘An appeal Against a null,void,and illegal gubernatorial nomination process in Akwa Ibom state’, Enang demanded that the entire process be nullified.
“That All the processes of nominations of candidates in all elective positions should be called off and the party recalled, since INEC is not monitoring the whole exercise,” the petition partly read.
It added, “I strongly appeal, that for the sake of APC having to be on the ballot for all the elections, there is need to come together so we can see how best to conduct our primaries.
“My final prayer is that the purported nomination of Akan Udofia as the gubernatorial candidate of the APC be cancelled.
“Mr. Akan Udofia is not an APC member. He is a PDP member, having contested and lost the PDP Primaries of Wednesday, May 25, 2022.
“And the following day, May 26, 2022, he was purportedly to be on the ballot for the APC illegally declared. He cannot be on the ballot of both parties at the same time.”
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