Akwa Ibom: Udom Tames Akpabio, Wins Re-election

Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State has won his re-election on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) despite a fierce alliance between President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) and the armed security forces to stop him.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared him as the winner of the governorship election held on Saturday March, 9.

He polled a total of 519, 712 votes to emerge winner, while his closest challenger, Nsima Ekere of the APC who was foisted on the party by Senator Godswill Akpabio, scored a total of 171, 978 votes. Ekere had been Akpabio’s deputy when the senator dominated affairs of the state as governor.

Declaring Udom winner of the election in the state, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, Professor Faraday Osarere Orumwense, said ‘’I hereby certify that I was the returning officer of the Akwa Ibom state governorship election held on March, 10, 2019.

‘’Udom Emmanuel of the PDP having satisfied the requirements of the Law and scored the highest number of votes , I hereby declare Udom Emmanuel the winner and returned elected.’’

Before the Saturday polls in the state, this reporter had stated that the seeming emergence of the people’s power in Akwa Ibom under the watch of Governor Udom, follows the political Sunset of Senator Akpabio, a marginal political factor in the APC generally believed to be too boastful.

The rest went thus: ‘’Often, this former governor who dominated the affairs of Akwa Ibom for eight years (2007-2015), tends to be obsessed with his illusionary image of a political god. In his utopian world, he tends to see Udom as a thing he picked from Lagos, and single-handedly made the governor of the big oil state.

‘’The warped logic of the misled followers of this aspirant to the Senate Presidency that without Akpabio, Udom is nothing, drove the supposed demi-god to his political miasma of February 23 in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District.

‘’In the political arena, every star player was at a particular point made by a dominant political stalwart then. Just like some political potentates made Obong Victor Attah, who in turn, created Godswill Akpabio, is there any justification for boasting about transient political might?

‘’The way things are at the moment in the state, it appears the Sun of Akpabioistic politics is setting, and there is an emerging Udomistic movement. The Udomification of this year’s elections is a resistance politics of sorts against those playing god and courting violence.’’

With this taming of Akpabio politically in Akwa Ibom, it’s obvious the senator lost his electoral value and godhood status since his defection to the APC for shelter from the anti-graft goons.

However, a total of 50 political parties’ agents signed the result, except the agent of the APC, Archbishop Samuel Akpan who walked out on the ground that his party mandated him not to accept the outcome of the result.

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