All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Eket/Onna/Esit Eket/Ibeno Federal Constituency, Akwa Ibom State in the 2023
House of Representatives election, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh, has appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to call the Akwa Ibom Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mike Igini, to order.
To Eyiboh, Igini, who will soon retire from the commission, is already becoming an embarrassment to the electoral umpire due to his numerous unilateral actions against the rule of law.
The former spokesperson of the House of Representatives accused Igini of bias and for purportedly bringing a bad name to INEC.
Speaking in Lagos, Eyiboh specifically accused Igini of discriminating against the Akwa Ibom State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by refusing to recognise and deal with the validly elected leadership recognised by courts.
Speaking “as a witness to the truth”, Eyiboh berated Igini for refusing to either monitor the party primary that produced former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, as APC 2023 senatorial candidate for Akwa Ibom North West or to recognise him as the validly elected candidate.
“Igini has refused to recognise the state party executive recognised by court since March. He has also refused to recognise and accept Akpabio as the validly elected APC senatorial candidate for Akwa Ibom North West”.
Eyiboh said that after the initial holder of the senatorial ticket, Obong Ekperikpe Ekpo, willingly stepped down and withdrew from contesting the 2023 election, “the party wrote INEC that it was going to have a reconduct – not a rerun – of the primary. “Senator Akpabio picked the form within the time frame allowed for party primaries. The previous winner withdrew in writing and physically. Akpabio picked the form, filled it and submitted it. He participated in the primary, but Igini vowed never to supervise the primary and eventually refused to supervise it”.
Eyiboh, who stressed that he was “not speaking for the party or for anybody but speaking as a candidate and a “witness to the truth”, accused Igini of acting “not only ultra vires but also against his oath of office and also as a public official”.
He noted that Akwa Ibom APC has formally petitioned INEC about Igini’s excesses and appealed to the electoral umpire to call the Akwa Ibom REC to order so as to prevent him from further tarnishing the image of the commission.
He said the position of Igini does not reflect the impartiality expected of INEC, so he should be checked immediately.
Igini had, in a report submitted to INEC, said APC does not have a governorship candidate, going by the primaries monitored by election officials.
The development came amid a leadership crisis, which produced two sets of executives — one led by Stephen Ntukekpo and the other by Augustine Ekanem.
It is believed that members of the Ntukekpo-led executives are loyal to Godswill Akpabio, former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, while former Secretary of the APC Caretaker Committee, John Akpanudoedehe, controls the Ekanem group.
A federal High Court in Abuja, in March 2022, sacked the Ekanem-led officials, and described their election “a result of illegality”.
Taiwo Taiwo, the presiding judge, also directed INEC to recognise the Ntukekpo-led executives, and described them as the duly-elected officials of the party in Akwa Ibom.
In the report, Igini had said a governorship primary was scheduled to hold at the Sheergrace Arena in Uyo, but the exercise did not hold, adding that he was later informed that another primary organised by the Ntukepo-led executives held at a different venue.
He, however, said the primary was not recognised.
The exercise which saw Akpabio win the senatorial ticket followed the withdrawal of Ekpo, who had won an earlier primary that was later cancelled by the party.
However, the Akwa Ibom REC insisted that INEC officials did not monitor any primary outside the one conducted on May 27, which was won by Udom Ekpoudom, a former deputy Inspector-General of police (DIG).
But a list of candidates had been published by INEC and in complying with the judgement of a Federal High Court, recognises Ntukekpo as the chairman of the party in Akwa Ibom State.
“The Commission wishes to formally draw your attention to the subsisting judgement/order of the Federal High Court, Abuja (Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/1635/2021) which recognized Hon. Obong Stephen Leo Ntukekpo as Chairman of the APC in Akwa Ibom,” the letter, signed by Rose Oriarah-Anthony, reads.
“This is to note that the commission is complying with the content of the judgement.”
There are other documents of correspondence involving INEC and the party. Also, the case challenging the leadership of Ntukekpo has been resolved at the Court of Appeal.
He, declared that Igini’s comments go against what the commission should stand for in terms of impartiality.
“Twenty-one days’ notice is the statutory requirement for all political parties to inform INEC of its party primaries. And all the parties, including APC, notified INEC of the conduct of its primaries across the country, including Akwa Ibom. So, the state chairman of the party, Ntukekpo, wrote to INEC informing INEC of the venue, date of the conduct of the governorship, senate, house of reps and state House of Assembly primaries in full compliance with the Electoral Act,” he said.
“It is the responsibility of INEC as an institution to engage its administrative procedures once the notice is given. It must not necessarily be the Resident Electoral Commissioner. But the law stipulates that the political party must give 21 days’ statutory notice.
“So, the question is this. Did the political party issue this 21 days’ notice? Did they notify INEC of the venue, time, and date? The answer is yes. Whose responsibility is it to send monitors to go to that place? It is INEC’s responsibility. And when INEC refuses to send its personnel to go to that place, can a political party be punished for INEC’s absence? The answer is no.”
On Igini’s position regarding the conduct of primaries in the state, Eyiboh said INEC needs to do better to improve on the electoral process.
“He acted not only ultra vires, he acted in contempt of his scope of office as a public officer. He conducted himself in a way and manner that was suggestive of not a representative of an INEC that is supposed to be impartial,” he added.
“What Igini is doing, can he function in his public duties using his personality to represent INEC in cases which are purely out of his control? We are not promoting ethical values and institutional integrity. It’s like we’re promoting a personal conflict.”
Eyiboh said while he wasn’t speaking on behalf of Akpabio or the party, he was concerned because whatever affects the party, affects him as a candidate.
“We should be able to raise the stakes of our electoral values, the institutional integrity and social democratic values by trying to detach individual personalities from the institutions,” he said.
“INEC has done very well to improve on the electoral system. But that is not enough. Their officers should detach their personal opinions and sentiments from the institution.
“As a political party, we are going to have post-primary conflict here and there. So, what we are trying to do now is to engage a series of conflict management strategies, talk to party members, and we are lucky to have very strong personalities in APC in Akwa Ibom.
“On the issue of governorship, when Igini said APC has no candidate, that is not right. Our Akwa Ibom governorship candidate, Akanimo Udofia, has been most celebrated in recent times”.
