Dennis Udo-Udoma, Uyo
Barely three weeks after the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the winner for the governorship position in Akwa Ibom, the gubernatorial candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Arch. Ezekiel Nya-etok has alleged that the Commission in Akwa Ibom deliberately compromised the 2023 governorship election in favour of the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) candidate, Pastor Umo Eno.
Anya-etok, made the allegation during a thank-you meeting with journalists in Uyo at the weekend.
He said, despite the early warnings and red flags raised by the Civil Society Organisations, INEC continued to reassure Nigerians that it would conduct the most credible election in the history of the Country, only to compromise with the ruling party, PDP, in the State.
He lamented that INEC seemed to have abdicated its responsibility to the judiciary, adding that elections were supposed to have fewer judicial interventions as it is the people that were supposed to elect leaders through the ballot and not through judicial pronouncements.
“INEC has destroyed the safeguards of the elections. INEC can improve its performance by 80 per cent, but INEC deliberately chose to run a flawed election.
“It is not technology, it is not logistic problem, it is a deliberate plan to rig the election. The biggest weakness in this election is INEC, not politicians. Check out the election results posted on their portals, it is completely different from the ones that were signed by our agents at different polling units,” he stated.
Arc. Nya-etok, has been contesting for the position of Governor since 2007, but failed to clinch the top job at different times; the just concluded being the third.