Senator Chris Ekpenyong represent Akwa Ibom North West has vowed to beat Senator Godswill Akpabio again following the ruling of the Court of Appeal for a re-run within 90 days.
Accordingly, the former Deputy Governor assured his supporters to remain calm while a date for the election is fixed.
“I am very prepared to defeat him again in Essien Udim, let’s go to the field, he has to resign first as a minister in line with the provisions of the constitution. God gave me victory to salvage my people from deceit and poor leadership, and nothing has spoilt that victory,” Sen. Ekpenyong restated.
He said with the election in one local government area only, all focus and attention would be given to the election and there would be no room for manipulation and rigging, as was noted in the area based on reports of observers and the electoral umpire.
“He brought war and federal might, but the people’s might and God’s mighty hand gave me victory. This is another opportunity for the gap of that victory to be expanded,” Senator Ekpenyong added.
Results from the other nine local government areas showed that Senator Chris Ekpenyong leads with 114, 973 votes while Akpabio has 76,917.
Akpabio, who lost the election to Ekpenyong by 83,158 votes to 118 ,215, had approached the Appeal Court to seek the order of the court for the illegal figures he allocated to himself, after losing to Senator Ekpenyong in 8 of the 10 local government areas of the district.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had confirmed that only 19,455 voters were accredited in Essien Udim local government area during the election and had rejected the alleged votes Akpabio was said to have allotted to himself.
This INEC decision was upheld by the National Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal in Uyo, which decided that the 61,329 votes claimed by Akpabio were inconsistent with the number of accredited voters during the February 23 elections.
In a related development, the Appeal Court has also ordered that a fresh election be conducted in Essien Udim local government area for the House of Representatives seat between the incumbent Nsikak Ekong of the PDP and Emmanuel Akpan of the APC.
Ekong will also go into the election with the lead garnered from his victory in the other two local government areas of the federal constituency, Ikot Ekpene and Obot Akara.
