By; PATRICK TITUS, Uyo
An embattled All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the Eket Federal Constituency in the just concluded primaries in Akwa Ibom State, Hon Eseme Eyiboh, has challenged his opponents in the race to show evidence of their claims to victory during the primaries in state.
The APC primary which was conducted on May 27,2022, for the constituency, produced different outcomes as two other aspirants have also laid claim to victory following parallel primaries conducted in the constituency.
But speaking during a media interaction on Wednesday in Uyo, Eyiboh who was declared the winner in the contest challenged those laying claims to his victory to show which election committee panel conducted their primaries.
He told his opponents that elections are not conducted with a piece of paper, but with sensitive materials and ballot papers which are used in determining the authenticity of who is doing what.
According to him, “there was a panel constituted by the APC to go and conduct the primaries, where was the panel? And I hear people saying that there was a parallel primary, who head the team of the panel that came to conduct. That is number one question and it’s not a rhetorical question, it must be answered. Number 2, who were the other people that conducted the other primaries?
“Do people just take a piece of paper and go and conduct primary?. No!, there are sensitive materials where results are recorded and announced. These are things you use in determining the authenticity of who is doing what.
“The panel which produced the results and the other sets of people who were holding a convention of undisclosed purpose, you don’t even bother to find out what is the result of what they did,who conducted it, let them announce it and put the names of the panel who disclosed it. These are the things we need to be aware. There is one APC, there was one primary conducted and there was a result”
The former parliamentarian who expressed confident in his victory during the election also debunked insinuations that there are factions in the APC in the state.
He said, “So, if you want to know whether there are factions in APC, there is no faction in APC. Why they’re are no factions in APC is that, there is only one APC headed by Alh. Abdullahi Adamu, and if you know any other one, you can bring him up.
“If you agree that the law recognises that there is only one APC, whoever is delegated by the instrument of the APC is the agent of the APC. So,if you agree that Adamu is the national chairman of the party, what is the structure of APC in Akwa Ibom state?
“We have Austin Ekanem, and we have Stephen Ntuekpo,and the matter went to the federal high court. The court gave a judgement and the party headed by Abdullahi Adamu recognised the Stephen Ntuekpo-led exco by the judgement of the court. There is no other superior judgement. And after that he went ahead to admit him on oath as the chairman of the party.
“This is very clear. Other parties went to court even when they were not interested party as it were at the court of first instance, the names and the persons were not mentioned. The party before the court are the court of first instance. So, the court of appeal is asking for status quo to be maintained and what does that mean? where were you before coming here?, where were they at the point of judgement at the federal high court?. So, Ntuekpo is the state chairman of the party because he was the one declared by the court.
Whether the Court did what it did in good faith is not a subject for you and I to debate, it is a subject of appeal and unless a superior court of competent jurisdiction decides otherwise, any other who is doing it, is doing an ostrich dance in the theatre of the absurd.”
