Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Young Democratic Party (YDP) Governorship Candidate for Akwa Ibom State Ezekiel Nya-Etok has dissociated himself from allegations by the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) against Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) Residence Electoral Commission (REC) for Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, seeking his redeployment.
Nya-Etok, in a statement he personally signed, said Igini has a national reputation for insisting on free, fair and credible elections.
According to the YDP guber candidate, “His (Igini) position has brought a lot of comfort to the generality of Akwa Ibom voters or electorates.”
Nya-Etok said, the extreme division between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) “is a perfect recipé for anarchy and mayhem except we are aware from the onset that the umpire for the elections would be free and fair to all.”
The YDP candidate who said, “Akwa Ibom State has never, in my opinion, held credible elections,” stated, “I wish to dissociate myself completely and entirely from certain allegations contained in the IPAC Press Briefing. These are:
“The generalization of the APC as the party seeking the redeployment of Mr. Igini.
“My position is occasioned by my knowledge of several well-meaning APC members that pray for free, fair and credible elections and are therefore happy to have Mr. Igini as the umpire for Akwa Ibom State.
“The bribery allegation: I have no knowledge of this allegation and will therefore completely dissociate myself from same. While not disputing, I will not be in a position to confirm and as such, wisdom demands that I dissociate myself from it.
“On a general note, I want to state expressly that my confidence to be a part of this process was occasioned by my respect for the impartiality, credibility and uprightness of Mr. Igini. Any effort to remove him would therefore be a direct effort to disenfranchise the good people of Akwa Ibom State and I join all well-meaning Akwa Ibomites to appeal to Prof. Mahmood Yakubu not to bow to any pressures to redeploy Mr. Igini while urging our teeming supporters to continue to look forward to and have hope in free, fair and credible elections come Saturday 23rd of February, 2019 and Saturday 9th of March, 2019.”