A major political statement was made on Saturday in Akwa Ibom State in the rerun elections for the Ikono/Ini Federal Constituency and Ibiono Ibom State Constituency. The All Progressives Congress (APC)-backed Young Progressives Party (YPP) candidates emerged as winners after the rerun polls.
The victory of the YPP candidate, Hon. Emmanuel Ukpong-Udo, has thus increased the number of House of Representatives seats won by the APC/YPP coalition in Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District, where the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, represents three out of four.
Another APC-backed candidate for the Ibiono Ibom State Constituency in the Uyo Senatorial District, Hon. Moses Essien, was also returned as a duly elected State House of Assembly member.
It would be recalled that the entire structure of the YPP, from the wards to the state, its governorship candidate, Senator Bassey Albert Akpan; his running mate, Assistant Inspector General of Police rtd, Asuquo Amba; and all the senatorial candidates of the party, among others, publicly collapsed the party structure into the APC at the Political Pavillion of the President of the Senate in his Ukana home.
Political circles view the victory of the two APC-backed candidates as a powerful political message to the ruling party, demonstrating the APC’s determination and readiness to assume power in 2027.
It was reliably gathered that Akpabio had congratulated the duo, and immediately they were announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as winners in the two rerun elections. He was said to have described it as demonstrating the people’s acceptance of the party in the state and the nation.
“Let me congratulate the winners at the rerun poll. Their victory is a demonstration of the endorsement of their representations at the National and State Assemblies, respectively. It is also a demonstration of the people’s acceptance of the party at the state and national levels. I thank the electorate for coming out in their thousands to cast their votes for their preferred candidates. This is just the beginning of the journey to take over the state’s political leadership and finally link the state to the centre,” he stated.
He called on the electorate to “continue to keep faith with the party by voting for the party and its candidates at all future elections, starting with the local government elections coming up later in the year.”
