The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio has publicly admitted to rigging the results of a 2007 senatorial primary election of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, in which he single-handedly replaced the winner of the primaries with his preferred candidate.
Akpabio made this admission when the National Good Governance Tour delegation, led by the Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku visited the state on the 9th of March.
The confession was also caught on video, which went viral on Sunday and was available on the website of Premium Times, a Nigerian news portal.
Akpabio said he struck out the name of the person who won the PDP
primary election and replaced it with Aloysius Etuk, who went ahead to
win the senatorial election. He remains a serving senator having won a reelection in 2011.
The governor said, “The people of Ikono and Ini (Local Government Areas) from 1960 have never produced a Senator.
“I used my own hand to strike out the name of the person who has won
before, and I said it is important for me to give that region a Senator in 2007, and I produced Senator Aloysius Etuk for you; that’s where he comes from.”
The governor’s confession shocked many in attendance.
I think he was forced to do this, maybe his life is being threatened or something….a normal NIGERIAN governor wouldn’t do this, ever!
