All Progressives Congress candidate for Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District in the 2023 general elections, Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Udom Ekpoudom (retd.), says he will never hand over his APC senatorial district ticket to the former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and ex-presidential aspirant, Senator Godswill Akpabio or any other person regardless of the pressure on him.
DIG Ekpoudom had earlier been announced the winner of the May 27, 2022 Senatorial primary of the APC for the Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District.
But the State Chairman of the party, Mr. Stephen Ntuekpo, who cited security infractions in the May 27 primary in the district, claimed the APC National Headquarters directed him to conduct a fresh on June 8, 2022.
The said primary was said to have produced the Akpabio as the winner, having scored a total of 478 votes out of 512 accredited delegates.
A jointly signed statement on Sunday by Ekpoudum’s campaign Director-General, Hon. Uwem Udoma; Secretary, Obong Etokakpan, and the campaign’s Director of Media and Publicity, Peter Idiong, however, said that the June 8, 2022 nocturnal primary which produced Akpabio was a “scam, unconstitutional, deceitful and legally defective.”
They assured APC members in the Senatorial district that Ekpoudom would “under no circumstance, relinquish, withdraw or be substituted no matter the degree of pressure and inducement dangled by anyone.”
The statement stressed that the mandate freely and expressly given to the ex-DIG as the APC flagbearear in the 2023 next year’s senatorial election is not a commodity that could be traded and bargained for.
It added, “The 2023 DIG Udom Ekpoudom Senatorial Campaign Organisation has observed an absurd, ridiculous and highly provocative conspiracy with respect to the APC Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District Senate primary election, validly won by Udom Ekpoudom. We vehemently wish to reiterate and state as follows;
“That DIG Udom Ekpoudom, the Standard Bearer is a very disciplined, cultured and law-abiding citizen with the national toga of Officer of Niger, hence, he has high regard for extant laws of any establishment.
“Recall that Ekpoudom duly participated in the Akwa Ibom North-West APC Senatorial District Primary Election held on Friday, May 27, 2022, in line with the 2023 Election Timetable and guideline of our party.
“Succinctly, the primary election was properly monitored by INEC as constitutionally required and Udom Ekpoudom was victorious and declared the winner and the party’s flagbearer.
“Sequel to the aforementioned, we want to state categorically and without any ambiguity, that at no time did our party, the APC put our candidate on notice of any cancellation of the primary election or that of conducting another senatorial primary for the Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial seat.”
The Ekpoudom campaign organisation vowed that the mandate given to the former DIG to contest next year’s senatorial election was sacrosanct and would be judiciously guarded and protected.
“The purported “scam election” held on Thursday, June 8, 2022, at the Skills Acquisition Centre in Ikot Ekpene, is nothing but illegal, deceitful, unconstitutional, and legally defective,” it added.
