The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says
its officials didn’t monitor any primary organised by the All Progressives
Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom state.
Mike Igini, resident electoral commissioner (REC) for Akwa
Ibom, disclosed this in a report dated May 27, 2022, and submitted to the
commission on the conduct of primaries in the state.
“We wish to report that the APC governorship primary
scheduled to hold on Thursday, May 26, 2022, at the Sheergrace Arena, Nsikak
Eduok Avenue, Uyo, did not hold because the APC primary election committee did
not come to the venue and did not hold the primary in any other venue monitored
by the commission,” the report reads.
“The Resident Electoral Commissioner, the Commissioner of Police and the State INEC Monitoring Committee were present at the venue for the duration earlier stated, but left at about 10:30pm after the Chairman of the Primary Election Committee notified the REC on phone that they would not come to the venue.
“Equally, the APC
State Chapter Executives and the entire State Delegates were at the venue but
the primary election did not hold because of the failure or refusal of the
primary election committee to come to the designated venue.”
Speaking to TheCable on Saturday, Igini said the commission
was later informed of another primary which held at a different venue, but
added that INEC officials didn’t monitor the exercise.
“It is not INEC that conducts party primaries. We only
monitor. It is the APC that said they could not do the primary, so we said
okay. By the time we woke up in the morning, they said at some location, they
have done governorship primary. We are not aware of it; we didn’t monitor it,”
he said.
“Having said they
have done so, we are required to write our report. That report is what we wrote
and submitted to Abuja.”
According to the report, despite the “multitude of
delegates” present at the Sheergrace Arena, the election committee sent by the
national body said they would not be conducting the exercise at the venue where
INEC officials were present.
After hours of back-and-forth over which venue was the
approved place for the exercise, the APC primary election panel was said to
have eventually gone to one Obot street venue, instead of the Sheergrace arena
for the primary.
Akan Udofia, said to have recently defected to the APC from
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was announced as the party’s governorship
candidate on May 27 — but INEC maintained that its officials didn’t monitor
that exercise.
The development comes amid leadership crisis in the party
over factions loyal to Godswill Akpabio, former minister of Niger Delta
affairs, and John Akpanudoedehe, former national secretary of the APC caretaker
committee.
In October 2021, parallel congresses were held in the state,
which produced two sets of executives — one led by Stephen Ntukekpo and the
other by Austin Ekanem, with the former said to be loyal to Akpabio, and the
latter backed by Akpanudoedehe.
In February 2022, when Abubakar Sani Bello, Niger governor,
took over as acting national chairman of the caretaker committee, Ekanem was
sworn in as the party’s state chairman.
Shortly after, a federal high court in Abuja nullified the
swearing-in of Ekanem and recognised Ntukekpo as the party chairman.
Following the development, Akpanudoedehe filed a suit
seeking a stay of execution and he also appealed the judgment.
However, in April 2022, Abdullahi Adamu, APC national
chairman, swore in Ntukekpo as the chairman of the party in Akwa Ibom, despite
an appeal court ruling ordering the parties involved to maintain status quo
pending determination of the matter.
Meanwhile, Akpanudoedehe, who had also sought the party’s
governorship ticket, has dumped the APC and is now the governorship candidate
of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
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