From Joe Effiong, Uyo
Some agrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State, yesterday, staged a protest asking the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to remove Mr Mike Igini as Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC).
Under the aegis of Coalition of Opposition Political Parties in Akwa Ibom State, the group blocked access to the Commission’s office along Udo Udoma Avenue Uyo, accusing Igini of deviating from being an unbiased umpire to partisanship resulting in the controversies rocking the APC in the state.
Igini, however, said he was not new to protests to remove him from office having experienced it as REC in Cross River State.
The group seeking his removal, however, insisted he must go alleging he had become partisan.
They chanted, “Mike Igini must go” blocking the INEC office entrance and preventing staff of the Commission from entering their offices. They also displayed placards with inscriptions like “Igini is biased”, “Democracy is not for sale”, “INEC must act now”, “Akwa Ibom REC is compromised,” “Igini don’t kill Akwa Ibom political parties”, “Igini is partisan”, “Igini is a factional chairman of a party,” among several others.
One the proetsters, Ubok-Obong Umoh urged INEC to probe what he termed the “personal vendetta” of Igini against the main APC in the state.
“We are protesting clear partisanship demonstrated by a supposed umpire, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mike Igini. Between 2019 and now, Igini has demonstrated that he has no faith in Nigerian democracy and as a result, he is now playing the script of the Akwa Ibom State Government,” Umoh said.
He accused Igini of acting on the instructions of the state government, adding that nothing APC or any other opposition parties do is acceptable to him.
He said the REC should be probed over the comments he made during an interview on a national television station that APC in the state will not have any candidate for 2023 elections.
“His statement is unacceptable not just to members of APC, but to the generality of peace-loving people of Akwa Ibom State.”
State APC Youth Leader, Dr. Awak Clement, queried why Igini should single himself out to fight APC in the state.
In his reaction, Igini told Daily Sun that he would continue to maintain the position of the commission as spelt out in the Electoral Act and the Constitution.
He insisted that the commission did not monitor the Akwa Ibom Norrh West (Ikot Ekpene) senatorial district as well as the gubernatorial primaries of the APC in the state because it was not invited to do so as enshrined in the Electoral Act 2022.