According to report reaching OYOGisst.com, the electoral authority in Akwa Ibom State has annulled the results of Councillorship elections in Ward 11, Esit-Eket local government area.
The Akwa Ibom State Independent Electoral Commission (AKISIEC) says a fresh election will hold on Saturday, November 7, 2020.
Chairman of the commission Mr Aniedi Ikoiwak said the cancellation of the exercise was as a result of some irregularities during the electoral process.
At the October 31 polls, Mr Victor Essang, candidate of National Rescue Mission (NRM), was reportedly declared winner of the councillorship election in the ward.
But the ruling Peoples Democratic Party claimed hoodlums hijacked election material and beat its party officials, including the ward chairman Mr Owoidoho Ekpo, who is reportedly in hospital.
Esit-Eket chapter chairman of the PDP said “it was at the mercy of God that I was able to escape from being lynched by those hired thugs who invaded the Local government AKISIEC office in Uquo [the council headquarters].”
On Monday, speaking on a live radio interview, the State Chairman of AKISIEC accused the NRM of taking over the conduct of elections from the Supervisor Presiding Officer (SPO).
Mr Ikoiwak told Comfort FM that the alleged act by the NRM meant the party was the one conducting the election for itself.
He added that the commission would not be a party to any electoral process that is not in line with the electoral law.
But the candidate of NRM, Victor Essang who spoke by phone into the radio programme, said he won the election and urged the electoral body to maintain its neutrality as promised.
“I am gentleman, if you find out from the entire Esit-Eket, the people know me,” Essang told one of the host Mr Ndueso Essien, an aide to the Governor. “He [AKISIEC chairman] knows what I’m talking [about]. He knows the pain for a young man to go campaigning for the whole years and less than three days somebody brings someone to impose on people.”
Essang also claimed AKISIEC didn’t disclose the name of the SPO for ward 11, an act he described as “the highest blunder” the electoral body had committed.
He added that the presiding officers at the respective polling units announced the results as stipulated by AKISIEC and that he emerged winner.
Meanwhile, the Saturday polls across the 31 councils in the state witnessed low turnout, especially as the main opposition party, All Progressive Congress, had boycotted the election citing a lack of independence of AKISIEC, among other concerns.
