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JULY 2, 2007 VOL. 21, NO. 12

One Seat, Two Senators

**Maurice Iwu, INEC Chairman**

One Senatorial seat remains vacant three weeks after the proclamation of the new senate, following controversy over the actual winner of the Akwa Ibom East Senatorial district
By Lawson Heyford, Uyo
till the confusion rages, resulting in some cases being shrouded in protracted controversies and manipulations that dogged the primaries of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) last December for this year’s April 14 and 21 elections. And, in most cases, the issues are similar: conniving with the nation’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to subvert the mandate of the people by a few party officials to suit their political whims and caprices.
In all the states, the story is the same as the macabre dance in Akwa Ibom State . After several cancellations of the governorship and National Assembly primaries, the die was finally cast on December 21, 2006. The contest for Akwa Ibom North east (Uyo) senatorial district was between three prominent sons of the area, made up of nine local government areas.
Ita Enang is from Itu / Ibiono Federal Constituency; Senator Effiong Dickson Bob who represented the district at the senate between 2003 – 2007, hails from Nsit Ubium LGA in Etinan Federal Constituency and Ime Albert Akpan who comes from Ibiono Ibom LGA in Itu Federal Constituency, like Enang.
The result of the primaries, as announced by the PDP electoral body, showed that Akpan, an astute businessman, emerged the winner with 2,080 votes as against Bob, a lawyer and the immediate past senator from the area who scored 920 votes, while Enang polled 213 votes. Whereas Senator John James Udoedegha who represented the district at the senate between 1999 and 2003 and hails from Uyo LGA in Uyo Federal Constituency did not seek a second term mandate, his successor in the senate between 2003 and 2007, Bob, sought to return to the upper legislative chamber for the second term.
Consequent upon the announced result, the name Ime Albert Akpan was submitted to the INEC office in Uyo by the State Executive of the PDP as the party’s candidate for the April 21, 2007 governorship / National Assembly elecations. Similarly, at the flag-giving exercise in Ibom hall, Uyo, Akpan was presented as the party’s standard bearer for Akwa Ibom North east Senatorial district three months after the primaries. But Bob was yet to accept the outcome of that primaries as he quickly dashed down to the National Secretariat of the PDP and INEC headquarters at Abuja.
A few days later, there was a quagmire as the INEC foisted a candidate, Bob, on the people of the senatorial district, replacing the winner, Akpan, with the immediate past senator. So, while on the party’s list submitted to INEC was Akpan, the name on INEC’s list for the election was Bob. Even with the confusion, PDP won the senatorial election of April 21. This raised the question: Where did INEC get the name Bob with which it sought to replace Akpan’s name that was submitted by the party. Or could it be that INEC now has the extended power to conduct elections and also nominate candidates for political parties?
Before the election proper, sensing that trouble was ahead, Akpan took the matter to the Federal High Court, Abuja where Justice Binta Nyako on April 18, 2007 delivered judgment confirming the electoral victory of Akpan at the December primaries. The judge also declared Akpan as the rightful candidate of the party for Akwa Ibom North east (Uyo) senatorial district election. Bob challenged the judgment at the Federal Court of Appeal on May 17, 2007, but the case is yet to come up for hearing, thus making the Justice Nyako ruling which upheld the candidature of Akpan, still subsisting.
Not resting on his oars and to actually fortify his candidature, Akpan again sought and secured an injunction from the same Justice Nyako’s court, restraining the first and second defendants, INEC and its chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu and the State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), from removing his name (Akpan), and replacing it with the third defendant, Bob, as the PDP candidate for Akwa Ibom North east (Uyo) senatorial district. On the poser before the court as to who amongst Imeh Albert Akpan and Effiong Dickson Bob is the authentic candidate of the PDP for the affected senatorial election, Justice Nyako said INEC had only one duty: to put up Akpan’s name in place of Bob.
Inspite of the court orders, INEC in a hand written terse statement purportedly signed by the REC a few days after the April 21 polls, announced Bob as the Senator-elect from Uyo Senatorial district. Said the statement: “The INEC, Akwa Ibom State wishes to inform the general public that the senator-elect for Akwa Ibom North east Senatorial district is Senator Effiong Bob whose name after due consultations with INEC National Headquarters, Abuja, had been cleared for the Senatorial elections and published by the Commission until the day of the elections. His name was also placed on INEC website throughout the period”.
There was pandemonium and hell was let loose, moreso when INEC immediately issued Bob with a certificate of return. But Akpan appeared to have been smarter. He rushed to Justice Nyako’s court again and on Monday, June 4, this year, he secured a perpetual injunction restraining the clerk of the National Assembly from swearing-in Bob as the elected senator of Akwa Ibom North east Senatorial district. – an order which the clerk quickly obeyed, and so on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 when the senators roll-call was effected, Bob’s name was conspicuously missing. Bob, who had already taken his seat in the senate chambers, was subsequently asked out of the upper chambers. He looked perplexed and overwhelmed by what suddenly hit him.
The obvious consequence now is that Akwa Ibom North east senatorial district has no representative in the current senate. And the people, through the Ibiono Ibom Youth for Democracy and Development are piqued at the development, and called on the INEC to respect their collective votes for Akpan and replace Bob’s name with his.
In a five-point communiqué at the end of its congress of May 18, 2007, the youths said Bob’s ambition for a second tenure was contrary to their earlier agreement for the seat to go round the nine LGA’s in the senatorial district. It was in keeping with this agreement, they said, that the former senator, Udoedegha did not seek a second term mandate. The same was the position of the Uyo Senatorial District Students Association (USDSA), which insisted in a protest letter dated May 23, 2007 that their mandate for Akpan must be upheld.
According to the students, INEC should declare Akpan as the true winner of the election as pronounced by both the PDP and the Abuja Federal High Court.
To continue their objection to the victory of Bob, people from the nine LGAs in the senatorial district held an inter-denominational solemn Assembly, asking for God’s intervention in ensuring justice for the winner of the primaries and the April 14 election. The paradox of the highly complex drama is that both the 1999 Senator, Udoedegha, his successor, Bob and Akpan are all worshippers at the Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries, Uyo. It was expected that the leadership of the church would be able to douse the tension created by the ambitions of both Bob and Akpan.
How the matter would be resolved so as to quickly bring peace in the senatorial district is a matter that, perhaps, only the judiciary would be able to resolve.