…politicians fall in Abuja for last minute lobbying
There is palpable tension in the ranks and file of the Akwa Ibom State Chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as the National Leadership of the Party is yet to authenticate and announce the result of the Party’s nomination held last week Saturday across the Wards in each of the ten Federal Constituencies.
This tension, THE INK reporter understands, has led to widespread discordant claims by candidates of aspirants especially from Eket and Abak Federal Constituencies.
While it is largely believed that Clement Jimbo won with a landslide to get the Party’s ticket for the 2027 February General Elections, supporters of Engr. Iboro Johnny were seen celebrating on the Social media that the former City Boys Leader in Akwa Ibom State had emerged victorious. The celebration by Engr. Iboro Johnny’s team led to some supporters of Clement Jimbo querying the alleged victory of Engr. Johnny.
Our reporters who monitored the event reported that even though the APC is yet to officially declare the result of the nomination, early results observed indicate that Clement Jimbo was on the front for victory. It was not clearly understood why the Johnny’s team was celebrating, but political pundits say the Abak-born Engineer may be hoping that fortune smiles on his political voyage.
Meanwhile, supporters of Clement Jimbo say they cannot be yoked with claims of victory by the incumbent’s opponent. They maintained that from data collated by their monitoring team in the field, it was clear Jimbo has emerged victorious and will be subsequently announced by the Party’s leadership.
The story was not different in Eket Federal Constituency. THE INK reporter noted that the Federal Constituency had three aspirants which were, the incumbent Okpolupm Ikpong Etteh; a former Commissioner, Eunice Thomas and a new entrant Judith Mmayen-Oghara. While many had observed that the battle was indeed a three Horse race, it was obvious the race for the APC ticket in the Federal Constituency was going to be tougher than imagined. Our reporter understands that supporters of Eunice Thomas and Mmayen Judith have ascribed victory to themselves while Etteh has remained quiet obviously having a final card to throw up. Our reporter noted that a lot of intrigues has characterized this nomination and there have been accusations and counter accusations of whether or not some of those aspirants have been cleared.
THE INK reporter who monitored proceedings from the Headquarters of the Party observed that the result of the nominations will be released after due consultations within the Party hierarchy. It was learnt that some interests will be subsumed for others as horse trading and political alignments and realignments hots up.
Meanwhile, politicians have since either by themselves or their proxies relocated to Abuja to either protect their victory or manipulate their opponents into failure. When our reporter spoke to one of the contestants on phone last night, our reporter was informed that in Politics, it is never over until it is really over.
But the quest for the Senate tickets in the APC have gone down without a lot of fight. In a nomination exercise held on Monday, the three Senators representing Akwa Ibom State looks like they were unanimously accepted. This follows the pulling out and withdrawing of interest from some of the persons who would have posed some level of problems to the returning Senate members.
Apart form the Senate President who had no opposition within the Party, Ekong Sampson’s known opponents Francis Charles Uduyork and Ekanem Brown withdrew from the race with about forty eight hours to the nomination, paving the way for Senator Sampson, a renowned Lawyer and Journalist to return with the ticket of the Party enroute a second term.
For the Senator representing Uyo Senatorial District, Aniekan Bassey, his known contender Usenobong Akpabio withdrew from the race without even purchasing the Party’s nomination form. At the nomination which held yesterday, Bassey coasted home to victory.