Akwa Ibom Local Elections: Akpabio’s ‘political father’ says PDP, not APC, won in Senate president’s LGA

Controversy has continued to trail the outcome of the recent local elections in Akwa Ibom State.

The man regarded as the political leader of Essien Udim Local Government Area in the state has insisted that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and not the All Progressives Congress (APC), won the chairmanship election in the council area.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio, a member of the APC, hails from Essien Udim.

“I am not happy. Why should I be happy? All my people are crying,” Michael Afangideh told PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday about the Akwa Ibom State Independent Electoral Commission (AKISIEC)’s declaration of the APC as the winner of the chairmanship election in Essien Udim.

Mr Afangideh accused the PDP leadership in Akwa Ibom of using Essien Udim to do “trade by barter” with Mr Akpabio.

What Mr Afangideh meant is that Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom and the PDP leaders in the state allowed the APC to “take” Essien Udim because of Mr Akpabio and the governor’s political interest in 2027.

Meanwhile, the PDP won in 30 of the 31 local government areas.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that AKISIEC announced the PDP candidate Enobong Friday as the winner of the chairmanship election in Essien Udim but later reversed itself and said the APC candidate won.

A video clip circulating on WhatsApp groups shows Inyang Atting, the returning officer for the chairmanship election in the local government area, declaring that the PDP candidate, Mr Friday, scored 55,612 votes while Ntiedo Usoro of the APC scored 686.

“That Enobong Friday of PDP, having complied with the requirement of the law and scored the majority of votes, is hereby declared elected.

“I want to add that Enobong Friday, in addition to scoring the majority votes, had more than 25 per cent in all the 13 wards of Essien Udim Local Government Area,” Mr Atting, a professor of Medical and Public Health Parasitology/ Epidemiology at the University of Uyo, said in the declaration he made apparently on Saturday, shortly after the election.

But on Sunday, when AKISIEC released the names of the winners of the chairmanship election, the APC candidate’s name, not the PDP’s, appeared on the list as the election winner in Essien Udim.

The development prompted people in Akwa Ibom to question the election’s credibility.

The 106-year-old Mr Afangideh insisted that the PDP candidate scored 55,612 votes, while the APC candidate scored 686 in the chairmanship election in Essien Udim.

“PDP won in all the wards,” he said. “After some time, another announcement came from somewhere in APC, they said the leader of (the) APC (Akpabio) wanted Essien Udim, that they should give him Essien Udim.

“The man in the APC with smaller votes was declared the winner.”

Mr Afangideh said many youths from the local government area barricaded a major highway on Sunday to express their disapproval of the election commission’s declaration.

“Some youths are still with me right now, I am still pleading with them not to be violent.”

He said he, too, was not happy about the declaration that the APC won in Essien Udim, but there was not much he could do about it because age “has slowed him down.”

“What will I do? Am I going to fight somebody? I am 106 years old. I am no longer a young person.

“The governor said he wants to see me today by 4 p.m. (Wednesday, 9 October). I am going there with 20 of my people from Essien Udim to see him and to hear what he is going to say.”

Mr Afangideh said he would send a message to Mr Akpabio after meeting with Governor Eno.

Several people familiar with the politics in Essien Udim and Akwa Ibom told PREMIUM TIMES that Mr Afangideh is considered Mr Akpabio’s “political father.”

Mr Afangideh told this newspaper that he helped Mr Akpabio to become a commissioner in Akwa Ibom, a governor, and later, a senator.

“In Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District, we have about 10 local government areas. After he (Akpabio) completed his tenure as governor, I asked the people what we should do for him. They said they should do a sendoff for him; they should buy a cow for him. I said no, that was not enough.

“That time, it was the turn of Abak to produce a senator. I pleaded with (Emmanuel) Enoidem to allow me handover Senate to him (Akpabio). And the people accepted. Ever since he became a senator, he doesn’t call me again because he said I should go with him to APC, and I said no.

“I told him I brought you from nowhere to the PDP. I don’t want to leave the PDP,” Mr Afangideh said.

PREMIUM TIMES told Mr Afangideh that some people believed it would have been a disgrace to the Senate president if the APC did not win in Essien Udim.

“He should get it by votes, not by power,” he retorted. “If he wanted it, he should have called some people in the PDP (and discussed it).”

A source told PREMIUM TIMES that after the election commission declared the APC candidate as the winner of the chairmanship election in Essien Udim, Mr Akpabio reached out to a top official of the Akwa Ibom State Government and “begged” that the APC should be allowed to have seven councillors, slightly higher than the PDP councillors so that the council chairperson could be safe from impeachment.

Since he became governor on 29 May 2023, Mr Eno has skillfully built a friendly relationship with Mr Akpabio and other APC leaders in Akwa Ibom. He has reduced the inter-party friction which existed in the state during his predecessor, Governor Udom Emmanuel’s tenure.

Many believe that Governor Eno’s deliberate effort to build and sustain such a relationship is a strategy for him to have an easy ride to re-election in 2027.

“By allowing APC to win in Akpabio’s backyard, Governor Umo Eno has saved the Senate President a huge political embarrassment, cemented the cordial relationship between the two leaders and formally signalled the nature of the game that would be played in 2027. A political alliance is being constructed between the Senate President and the governor, and this will shape the politics of 2027,” Etim Etim, an APC chieftain in Akwa Ibom, said in a recent article he wrote about the local election in Essien Udim.

When contacted on Wednesday evening, Eseme Eyiboh, the Senate president’s spokesperson, declined to comment. He referred our reporter to Stephen Ntukekpo, the chairperson of the APC in Akwa Ibom.

Mr Ntukekpo’s phone line was switched off when this report was filed.

The APC spokesperson in Akwa Ibom, Otoabasi Udo, told our reporter that the party would not say much on the matter except that it stands on the election result in Essien Udim as announced by the election commission.

On Mr Afangideh’s remark that some protesting youths barricaded a highway because the APC candidate was declared the winner, Mr Udo said, “I didn’t witness that, so I don’t know if it is true or not.

“Anybody who is aggrieved, (if the result of an election did not go the way of that aggrieved person) can say anything he wants to say.

“The Senate president is from Essien Udim, and he is the grand leader of the party (APC). I want to believe that he wouldn’t be that unpopular in Essien Udim.”