Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Akwa Ibom State, Obong Nsima Ekere has vowed to reclaim the mandate the people gave him during the Saturday’s gubernatorial poll which was allegedly stolen by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Ekere made the vow while speaking to newsmen yesterday night in his Uyo residence, in reaction to the outcome of the governorship election in the state.
He insisted that Akwa Ibom people voted for the APC in spite of plots by the PDP to woo them to sell their votes with money.
Ekere added that the APC rejected the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, under the leadership of Mr Mike Igini because they did not correspond with the facts as declared at the various polling units.
He stressed, “Akwa Ibom people shunned those monies, came out in their hundreds of thousands to vote for me and other APC candidates In the governorship and House of Assembly election held on 09 March.
“And we were speaking to all our agents in the 2,980 polling units in Akwa Ibom state and the results we got as election was going on and at the end of counting in each of the polling units across the state showed clearly that Akwa Ibom people had embraced change; they showed clearly that they wanted APC.
“And the results showed that APC won in the 26 Local government areas of the state. We have the results of the polling units already to confirm this”
Ekere maintained that his party do not understand how Mr. Igini, the Resident Electoral Commissioner and the staff of INEC came out with the results that were now coming out from the collation centers because they were different from the results from polling units.
He added that they also noticed with dismay and total disappointment that against the provisions of the electoral act and guidelines released by INEC, that there were no collations at the ward centre in the state.
“And I will like Mr. Mile Igini to explain to Akwa Ibom people and to the whole country why he chose to make his own guidelines for the elections different from the guidelines that was released by the INEC.
“The results from the collations according to Mike Igini were totally different from the results that were obtained from the polling units across the state.
“We did not know how they did their collation, maybe they had a different model for collation different from what is known and acceptable for electioneering all over the world.
“But generally I want to thank the people of Akwa Ibom people for the massive support which they had given to the APC and the way they had voted overwhelmingly for APC and for myself in the last election and to assure them that by the grace of God we shall recover the mandate which they freely gave to the APC using the appropriate channels that are available and known to law,” he said.
