Follow Us on Google
Joe Effiong, Uyo
Chris Ekpenyong of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has been declared winner of Saturday rerun in the Akwa Ibom State North West (Ikot Ekpene) Senatorial District
Ekpenyong polled 19,924 votes to emerge winner while Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, who earlier withdrew from the rerun, polled 6,903 votes.
Adding the rerun result in Essien Udim to other nine local government areas in the senatorial district, which the Appeal Court had left intact, Akpabio still came a distant second with 83,820 votes as against that of Ekpenyong’s 134,717 votes.
Other All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates, Emmanuel Akpan for Ikot Ekpene federal constituency and Nse Ntuen of Essien Udim state constituency, who claimed to have withdrawn from the race, did not fare better.
While the current member of the House of Representatives from the area, Nsikak Ekong of the PDP polled 22,235 to add to the previous votes not cancelled, to tally at 45,366 votes, the immediate past House of Representatives member, Emmanuel Akpan, of the APC, ironically, from Essien Udim, got 6,003 while his total votes with that of March 2018, put him a distant second with 22,757 votes.
Ntuen, the erstwhile factional speaker of Akwa Ibom House of Assembly, whose attempt to return to the Assembly ran into a hitch during the March 2019 Assembly election, suffered a defeat with only 7,108 votes against his PDP opponent, Esse Umoh, who scored 18,999 votes to be declared the winner.
Independent National Electoral Commission has approved all the results announced at various collation centres in Essien Udim and Ikot Ekpene, with the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mike Igini, appending his signature to authenticate them.
Meanwhile, PDP in the state has described Akpabio and the APC’s failures in the rerun as “uncommon defeat.”
PDP, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, said: “With the declared results by INEC in Essien Udim Local Government Area for the Senate, House of Representatives and House of Assembly seats, the people of Essien Udim have brought a glorious end to an inglorious, disdainful and disgraceful comedy session.”
