Akwa
Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio has confessed to manipulating the result
of a 2007 Peoples Democratic Party senatorial primary election in
the state by single-handedly replacing the winner with the name of his
preferred candidate.
Akpabio,
who is also the PDP Governors Forum chairman, made the confession when a
delegation of the National Good Governance Tour visited the state
on March 9.
The
tour, which was recorded with a video camera, was led by the
Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku. The video which went viral on
Sunday was as of 8.47pm viewable onpremiumtimes.com, the website of an
online Nigerian news portal, Premium
Times.
The
governor made the confession while defending his claim of being fair to
the people of Ini and Ikono.
He was
responding to a question that he had not impacted the lives of the people of
the two communities, especially in the area of roads, schools and other public
infrastructure.
The
communities form part of Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District. Akpabio
said he struck out the name of the person who won the PDP primary
election and replaced it with Aloysius Etuk.
Etuk
went ahead to win the senatorial election. He remains a serving senator
having won a reelection in 2011.
The
governor said, “The people of Ikono and Ini (Local Government Areas) from 1960
have never produced a Senator.
“I used
my own hand to strike out the name of the person who has won before, and I said
it is important for me to give that region a Senator in 2007, and I produced
Senator Aloysius Etuk for you; that’s where he comes from.”
Etuk,
who was in attendance at the town hall meeting, confirmed the claim when
Akpabio asked him to stand up and “take a bow”.
The
governor’s confession shocked many in attendance.
The
governor, who was later hinted of the implication of his claim then
sought to further clarify it.
He
said, “So, I must say that I thank all of you, including the members of
the National Assembly led by Senator Aloysius Etok. And when I said that I made
Aloy(sius Etok) to become a senator in 2007, I need to explain it so that you
don’t think that I wrote his name and he became a senator.
“During
the primaries of the PDP, we zoned the Senate seat to his federal
constituency. And from the federal constituency, he came first in
the primaries. That happened in the PDP. So we said since he was the first
among the people who came from his federal constituency for the primaries, then
he must be the one to become the senator.”
Source: Punch
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