The Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial APC candidate in the 2023 general election, and a former Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG Udom Udo Ekpoudom (Rtd), says the mandate freely and expressly given to him to fly the All Prigressives Congress ticket for next year’s Senatorial election on May 22, is not a commodity for buying and selling, and as such, he will under no circumstance relinquish the ticket to former Minister of Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio, matter the degree of financial inducement.
DIG Ekpoudom who stated this in a press release signed by the Director General of his campaign, Rt Hon Uwem Udoma, alongside the Secretary, Obong Godwin Etokakpan and the campaign’s Director of Media and Publicity, Peter Idiong, assured APC members in the Senatorial district that he will “under no circumstance, relinquish, withdraw or be substituted no matter the degree of pressure and inducement dangled by anyone”.
Recall that Akpabio on Thursday reportedly “won” the senatorial rerun primary of APC for Akwa Ibom North-west District. A faction of the APC in Akwa Ibom, which is loyal to Akpabio, conducted the primary.
Akpabio polled 478 votes to defeat Ekpoudom, who had three votes, while another aspirant, Joseph Akpan, had one vote.
A fourth aspirant, Ekperikpe Ekpo, a former member of the House of Representatives, had stepped down for Akpabio.
The returning officer, Bunmi Imolehin, declared that the registered delegates were 540, but only 512 delegates were accredited, while 11 votes were void votes.
Condemning the election and Akpabio’s purported win, Ekpoudom said, “The 2023 DIG Udom Udo Ekpoudom (Rtd), Senatorial Campaign Organization has observed an absurd, ridiculous and highly provocative conspiracy with respect to the APC Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District Senate Primary election, validly won by Udom Udo Ekpoudom. We vehemently wish to reiterate and state as follows;
“That DIG Udom Udo Ekpoudom (Rtd), the Standard Bearer is a very disciplined, cultured and law abiding citizen with the national toga of Officer of Niger (OON), hence, he has a high regards for extant laws of any establishment.
“Recall that Ekpoudom duly participated in the Akwa Ibom North West APC Senatorial District Primary Election held on Friday, May 27, 2022, in line with the 2023 Election Timetable and Guideline of our Party.
“Succinctly, the primary election was properly monitored by INEC as constitutionally required and Udom Ekpoudom, was victorious and declared the winner and the party’s flagbearer.
“Sequel to the aforementioned, we want to state categorically and without any ambiguity, that at no time did our Party, the APC put our candidate, on notice of any cancellation of the Primary Election or that of conducting another Senatorial primary for the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial seat”, he stated.
“The campaign organization vowed that the mandate given to Ekpoudom to contest next year’s Senatorial election remains sacrosanct which would be judiciously guarded and protected.
“The purported “scam election” held on Thursday, 8th June, 2022 at the Skills Acquisition Centre in Ikot Ekpene is nothing but illegal, deceitful, unconstitutional, and legally defective”, Ekpoudom declared.
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