The Story of Emmanuel Udom
Ademola Adeyemo tells the success story of the Akwa Ibom State Governorelect, Emmanuel Udom
The governorship election in Akwa Ihe governorship election in Akwa Ibom State may have been lost and won but the exercise was not without controversies and protests from the opposition camp as it is in other states. There were mixed celebrations and uneasy calm in the state, depending on which side of the political divide the people belonged
According to the INEC chief returning officer for the governorship election in the state, Professor James Ekpoke, who is also the vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Udom polled a total of 996,071 votes to defeat his closest opponent, Okon Umana, who came a distant second with 89,805 votes.
Udom thus emerged the governor-elect of Akwa Ibom State with a landslide victory. But Umana and the APC leadership in the state rejected the results of the election and called for its outright cancellation, alleging widespread irregularities.
Before the election, political analysts had predicted that the governorship election in the PDP-controlled state would be a closely fought two-horse race between Udom and Umana. However, this was not to be as the political pundits were proved wrong going by the results of the election.
In registering their disagreement with the result, APC supporters staged a protest where they called for a repeat election. But in a counter move, PDP supporters mobilised too across all the local government areas of the state for a victory rally to neutralise the impact of the APC protest.
The Police pleaded with the PDP to postpone their victory rally till next day to avert a bloodbath on the streets of Uyo in the event of a clash between the two protesters. The PDP heeded the security counsel and rescheduled its rally.
The PDP victory march which held last Monday drew thousands of party faithful who came in buses from all parts of the state and assembled at the old Uyo township stadium. From the stadium, the PDP supporters chanting victory songs led by the party leaders marched through major streets with victory songs in praise of Governor Godswill Akpabio, his wife Unoma and Udom.
Akpabio and Udom who drove to the square standing in an open SUV vehicle, waving to the people in acknowledgement of cheers thanked the people for turning out en mass to rejoice openly over the victory of the PDP. The governor condemned the APC protest on Sunday and described it as the handiwork of bad losers, who hired misguided youths to deceive people that the April 11 elections in the state was not credible and peaceful.
“Your action today, your jubilation, your happiness speaks volumes. How can they say that there was no election in Akwa Ibom State? That is not true. What we wanted in Akwa Ibom State is continuity. Here, we are not talking about change. In Akwa Ibom State, we have experienced change since 2007. We want consolidation,” the governor said.
The governor-elect commended the people of Akwa Ibom State for electing him, and promised to take the state to another level of development and uncommon transformation. He said his election was not a fluke because Akwa Ibom is a PDP state.
“I came here to reassure Akwa Ibom people that this is a divine mandate that will consolidate on the gains of Akwa Ibom through uncommon transformation mission. We will ensure continuity and the relevance of the Akwa Ibom man in the nation through good governance, wealth creation and industrialisation,” Udom declared.
But Umana and a former governor of the state, Obong Victor Attah told reporters that the governorship and House of Assembly election were characterized by widespread irregularities such as violence, snatching of election materials and attacks on election staff by armed thugs of the ruling PDP in the state and should therefore be cancelled.
Attah insisted there was no election in any part of the state. But Akpabio replied Attah saying, “even if elections were held 10 times, it would be difficult for anybody to defeat the PDP. As far as the PDP was concern, everything was perfect, peaceful and orderly except two skirmishes reported in one or two places.”
The APC National Headquarters at a press conference addressed by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, threw its weight behind the state chapter of APC calling for cancellation of the results of the Governorship and House of Assembly Elections in the state which it said was marred by widespread irregularities.
In his reaction, the governor-elect said the call for cancellation based on claims of violence should not be welcomed because such pockets of issues were not enough for cancellation of the election results.
“In Akwa Ibom, we have a very large number of voters. I am not saying that there were no pockets of issues here and there, but it is not the way it is being analysed at all. People came out. They were orderly. The voting was good and peaceful. We have gotten reports from the 31 local government areas of this state. Apart from those pockets of people getting anxious here and there, immediately they started accreditation everywhere went peaceful,” he said.
Udom was surprised that the APC could call for result cancellation, saying “People are calling for cancellation and writing that there are crises in Akwa Ibom.
Things are not the way they are being reported. We don’t like this defeatist approach with people running to the studio to start crying foul. We had a very peaceful election. Things are not the way people are reporting it,” he stressed
He promised to initiate reconciliation with aggrieved parties immediately as well as render selfless service to the people and take the state to an enviable height. He said his administration would run an all-inclusive government, where all the people of Akwa Ibom including members of the opposition would benefit irrespective of their leanings.
He said the people deserved better service, adding that they would feel the impact of his administration and have their lives transformed for the better. “We will operate an open door administration where all interests would be considered. We are coming in for what will benefit the people and not to benefit us; we are coming in with selfless service.
That is what we want to render to the people so that at the end of the day, we will compare when we came in with when we leave the place and find out if we are leaving it better than we met it,” he said.
According to him, on assumption of office, his administration would apply appropriate pricing that would help to strengthen the purchasing power of the people and create wealth for them. “It’s a whole lot that we have in mind to do, so, we will not ignore any of the projects that are pending,” he said.
He denied the allegation that there was internal problem in the PDP in the state, saying the PDP settled its differences before going to the polls.
“It’s a different ball game. The reality is always different from the sentiment. You don’t actually project the sentiment beyond the reality and the reality goes beyond the sentiment. I am the governor-elect and the party is just the platform, the destination is what people will look up to; people are eager to enjoy the dividends of democracy,” he said.
He therefore thanked the Akwa Ibom people for their support towards his emergence and promised to carry everybody along. “People don’t care about the platform you use in giving them governance. In Nigeria, we have gone beyond that in our democracy. Nobody is talking about platform any longer.”
In its reaction to the situation in Akwa Ibom, INEC said it has no power to cancel the results of the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections in the state. INEC’s election came amid the European Union Election Observation Mission’s statement calling for a probe of the “severe problems” that characterised the polls in the state.
Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Kayode Idowu, said those calling on the commission to cancel the results were misdirecting their request. He explained that once results had been announced by INEC, only election petition tribunals had the power to cancel and order fresh elections.
“The law does not allow us to cancel any result after it has been announced. Everyone knows this. It is only the election petition tribunals that can order that or even cancelled the elections. We will advise anyone who is aggrieved to go there.”