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2023: I Will Not Relinquish My Senatorial Ticket To Akpabio – Ex-DIG

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Former Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Udom Ekpoudom has vowed that he will not relinquish the All Progressives Congress senatorial district ticket which he won on May 27, 2022, to Former Minister of Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio.

Ekpoudom on the 27th of May won the APC ticket for Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District in the 2023 general election.

The Chairman of APC in Akwa Ibom State, Stephen Ntuekpo, had cited security infractions in the May 27 primary as the reason for conducting another primary.

He claimed that he was directed by the national headquarters of the party to hold a fresh primary on June 8, 2022.

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The fresh primary produced Akpabio as the winner, having scored a total of 478 votes out of 512 accredited delegates.

Ekpoudum’s campaign Director-General, Hon. Uwem Udoma; Secretary, Obong Etokakpan, and the campaign’s Director of Media and Publicity, Peter Idiong in a statement released on Sunday described the primary that produced Senator Godswill as a “scam, unconstitutional, deceitful and legally defective.”

The statement reads, “The 2023 DIG Udom Ekpoudom Senatorial Campaign Organisation has observed an absurd, ridiculous and highly provocative conspiracy concerning the APC Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District Senate primary election, validly won by Udom Ekpoudom. We vehemently wish to reiterate and state as follows;

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“That DIG Udom Ekpoudom, the Standard Bearer is a very disciplined, cultured and law-abiding citizen with the national toga of Officer of Niger, hence, he has high regard for extant laws of any establishment.

“Recall that Ekpoudom duly participated in the Akwa Ibom North-West APC Senatorial District Primary Election held on Friday, May 27, 2022, in line with the 2023 Election Timetable and guideline of our party.

“Succinctly, the primary election was properly monitored by INEC as constitutionally required and Udom Ekpoudom was victorious and declared the winner and the party’s flagbearer.

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“Sequel to the aforementioned, we want to state categorically and without any ambiguity, that at no time did our party, the APC put our candidate on notice of any cancellation of the primary election or that of conducting another senatorial primary for the Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial seat.

“The purported “scam election” held on Thursday, June 8, 2022, at the Skills Acquisition Centre in Ikot Ekpene, is nothing but illegal, deceitful, unconstitutional, and legally defective.”