AKPABIO WITHDRAWS FROM SENATORIAL RE-RUN ELECTION, SAYS HE PREFERS MINISTERIAL JOB

The Court of Appeal, Calabar, in November, had ordered a rerun in only one local government area – Essien Udim – in the district, following Akpabio’s appeal against the judgement of the election petition tribunal which declared that his opponent, Chris Ekpenyong of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was the validly elected Senator for the District.

 “In line with the provisions of Section 35 of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) that I want to formally and voluntarily withdraw my candidature as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the forthcoming Court ordered Re-run Election for the Akwa lbom North-West Senatorial District,” ,Akpabio wrote.

“It will be appropriate in the circumstance and pursuant to Sections 33 and 35 of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) for the party to immediately communicate this withdrawal to the Independent National Electoral Commission and forward to her the name of another candidate of the party to replace me at the Court ordered Rerun Election for the Akwa lbom North-West Senatorial District’, he stated.

Penpushing further reports that, Akpabio emphasized that his party should ask the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to redeploy the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akwa Ibom State “if a free and transparent rerun exercise is to be guaranteed”.

The opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP), in reaction to the Court of Appeal judgement, had challenged Akpabio  to resign his appointment  as Minister and be ready for the rerun, stressing that, “It is on record that the margin of victory currently outstanding is in tens of thousands of votes, which has not been affected by the judgement of the court,”