by Rachel Ogbu
Akwa Ibom state Governor Godswill Akpabio has maintained that when he said he struck out the name of a Senatorial candidate for Senator Etuk during the 2011 general election, he didn’t mean he rigged the election.
Akpabio said he was misunderstood during his speech at a reception for the Good Governance tour in Uyo.
In an exclusive interview with Channels TV breakfast progamme; Sunrise Daily, he said:
“What happened was, we had a political meeting before the primaries where the list of people was given to me-possible candidates for the Senate in my senatorial district. And I struck off the name of the person that was recommended to me and I said no that, I will prefer another person because the senatorial seat should be zoned to the minority local government.”
Akpabio said that the name switch was “before the primaries, long before the general election.”
“It was a political conglomeration where we converge and discuss the affair of who should contest the Senate within the rank and file of an in-house arrangement before the primaries” he said.
“And somebody needs to know, this was not a general election, not even a primary. It was not even an election we were talking about.”
According to reports, he was also asked if the meeting was an internal arrangement but the Governor said it wasn’t. “It was before the voting where we were trying to decide who we will vote for at the primaries.”
“I am not INEC, even INEC cannot strike out somebody’s name and put another person’s name after an election result has been announced.”
Akpabio went on to say that “Nigerians do not like to hear the truth,” as he claimed he made
“Tell the admirers of the uncommon transformation (his administration’s motto), tell the admirers of Governor Akpabio that the governor is a democrat. I will never engage in that type of thing.”
Watch the video here:
