INEC: No APC governorship primary conducted in Akwa Ibom

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says its officials didn’t monitor any primary organised by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom state.

Mike Igini, resident electoral commissioner (REC) for Akwa Ibom, disclosed this in a report dated May 27, 2022, and submitted to the commission on the conduct of primaries in the state.

“We wish to report that the APC governorship primary scheduled to hold on Thursday, May 26, 2022, at the Sheergrace Arena, Nsikak Eduok Avenue, Uyo, did not hold because the APC primary election committee did not come to the venue and did not hold the primary in any other venue monitored by the commission,” the report reads.

“The Resident Electoral Commissioner, the Commissioner of Police and the State INEC Monitoring Committee were present at the venue for the duration earlier stated, but left at about 10:30pm after the Chairman of the Primary Election Committee notified the REC on phone that they would not come to the venue.

“Equally, the APC State Chapter Executives and the entire State Delegates were at the venue but the primary election did not hold because of the failure or refusal of the primary election committee to come to the designated venue.”

With the June 9 deadline for primaries now gone, the implication is that APC has no candidate for the 2023 governorship election in Akwa Ibom.

Speaking to TheCable on Saturday, Igini said the commission was later informed of another primary which held at a different venue, but added that INEC officials didn’t monitor the exercise.

“It is not INEC that conducts party primaries. We only monitor. It is the APC that said they could not do the primary, so we said okay. By the time we woke up in the morning, they said at some location, they have done governorship primary. We are not aware of it; we didn’t monitor it,” he said.

“Having said they have done so, we are required to write our report. That report is what we wrote and submitted to Abuja.”

According to the report, despite the “multitude of delegates” present at the Sheergrace Arena, the APC election committee said they would not conduct the exercise there.

After hours of back-and-forth over which venue was the approved place for the exercise, the APC primary election panel was said to have eventually gone to one Obot street venue for the primary.

Akan Udofia, who recently defected to the APC from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was announced as the party’s governorship candidate on May 27 — but INEC maintained that its officials didn’t monitor that exercise.

The development comes amid leadership crisis in the party over factions loyal to Godswill Akpabio, former minister of Niger Delta affairs, and John Akpanudoedehe, former national secretary of the APC caretaker committee.

In October 2021, parallel congresses were held in the state, which produced two sets of executives — one led by Stephen Ntukekpo and the other by Austin Ekanem, with the former said to be loyal to Akpabio, and the latter backed by Akpanudoedehe.

In February 2022, when Abubakar Sani Bello, Niger governor, took over as acting national chairman of the caretaker committee, Ekanem was sworn in as the party’s state chairman.

Shortly after, a federal high court in Abuja nullified the swearing-in of Ekanem and recognised Ntukekpo as the party chairman.

Following the development, Akpanudoedehe filed a suit seeking a stay of execution and he also appealed the judgment.

However, in April 2022, Abdullahi Adamu, APC national chairman, swore in Ntukekpo as the chairman of the party in Akwa Ibom, despite an appeal court ruling ordering the parties involved to maintain status quo pending determination of the matter.

Meanwhile, Akpanudoedehe, who had also sought the party’s governorship ticket, has dumped the APC and is now the governorship candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).