Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State, Mr Nsima Ekere, and Ikot Ekpene Senatorial district candidate APC, Godswill Akpabio, on Wednesday boycotted the signing of peace accord by governorship candidates and their political parties in the state ahead of the 2019 general elections, Igbere TV reports.
The ceremony attended by leaders of political parties and top government officials, religious and traditional rulers, youth and women groups was organised by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for governorship candidates, chairmen and stakeholders of the registered political parties participating in the coming elections.
Igbere Tv gathered from multiple competent sources that Ekere and Akpabio may have been frustrated after they failed in their bid to get the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Mr Mike Igini, transferred before the election, after weeks of intensed lobbying in Abuja. Akpabio and Nsima, it was gathered, had staked huge amounts of money as well as depended on their connections to high profile officials of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja to get Mr Igini out of the state ahead of the polls.
Igini, widely known for his integrity and dedication to the conduct of free, transparent and credible elections anywhere he serves, had been insisting that only Akwa Ibom people would determine the outcome of the elections through their votes as cast in the ballot and not through illegitimate means, a position this reporter gathered had been a bitter pill to swallow in certain opposition quarters.
It would be recalled that one of the spokesmen of the Nsima campaign, Mr Iboro Otongaran, had on Tuesday morning ecstatically issued a statement claiming that Mr Igini had been changed. The statement, Igbere TV learnt, was issued after APC chieftains in the state assured their supporters of a sealed deal removing Igini.
“There has been a shake-up in the Independent National Electoral Commission. The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for Akwa Ibom, Mike Igini, has just been redeployed to Bayelsa State and has been subsequently sworn in as the Resident Electoral Commissioner for the State. His appointment is coming barely two weeks to the 2019 General Elections”, Otongaran wrote on his Facebook wall.
Igbere TV however reports that Mr Igini presided over the Peace Accord meeting where he called on politicians to desist from politics of violence and give peace a chance in the state during the elections.
Present at the accord signing ceremony today were Governor Udom Emmanuel, Deputy Governor Moses Ekpo, Speaker Onofiok Luke, former Governor Victor Attah, and a host of other candidates and dignitaries.
Not too long ago, Nsima Ekere caused public outcry after he received guns and other ammunitions from his supporters in Ikot Ekpene as souvenir during a political rally by the APC. The embattled candidate has also been criticized for his role in the multiple violence and gory protests which followed his nomination as candidate of the APC.
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