Though a winner has emerged beating Godswill Akpabio, Minister of Niger Delta, in the recently held rerun in Akwa Ibom, the results from Essien Udim local government area of the state has been officially rejected.
Essien Udim is the home area of Akpabio, who was defeated by Christopher Ekpeyong in the election for the Senate as ordered by an appeal court.
The rejection was conveyed in a statement by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday, January 28. It also affected some of the areas in other states where the exercise was carried out.
INEC said it cannot accept the results because its officials were abducted during the exercise and were pressured to go against the rules of the election.
Festus Okoye, one of its commissioners, said the commission decided to reject the results after a study of what transpired in 11 states where rerun held across Nigeria.
The electoral organisation, however praised itself saying from the assessment, it knows it had made some positive upgrade in the way it handles elections in the country.
The electoral umpire also thanked those who voted as well the law enforcement agents who took part in the process.
Despite efforts to ensure the process was free and fair, it noted that some people still made moves to thwart what should be a smooth move. The move by these set of people, Okoye said, did not adversely affect the conduct.
“In Akwa-Ibom state, where the officials of INEC were abducted and diverted to an undesignated location and forced to compromise the elections in Essien Udim LGA, all the polling units involved were identified and their results discountenanced,” he said.
