APC has no governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom – INEC

With the June 9 deadline for primaries now gone, the Independent National Electoral Commission has revealed that the All Progressives Congress has no candidate for the 2023 governorship election in Akwa Ibom state.

Mike Igini, resident electoral commissioner (REC) for Akwa Ibom, in a report dated May 27, 2022, and submitted to the commission on the conduct of primaries in the state, said APC didn’t hold governorship primary 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.

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“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.”

Igini said the commission was later informed of another primary which was 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 had done governorship primary. We are not aware of it; we didn’t monitor it,” he said.

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 a 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.

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).