A major political statement was on Saturday made in Akwa Ibom State in the rerun elections into the Ikono/Ini Federal Constituency and Ibiono Ibom State Constituency, as the All Progressives Congress (APC) backed Young Progressives Party(YPP)candidates emerged winners after the rerun polls.
The victory of the YPP candidate, Hon Emmanuel Ukpong- Udo has thus increased the House of Representatives seats won by the APC/YPP coalition in Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District, where the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, represents to three out of four.
Another APC backed candidate for Ibiono Ibom State Constituency, in Uyo Senatorial District, Hon Moses Essien, was also returned as the duly elected member of the State House of Assembly.
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, 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.
The victory of the two APC backed candidates is seen in political circles as a master stroke and potent political message to the ruling party in the state, of the determination and readiness of the APC to take over the reins of government in 2027.
It was reliably gathered that Akpabio has congratulated the duo, immediately they were announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as winners in the two rerun elections. He was daud to have described it as the demonstration of the people’s acceptance of the party in the state and the nation.
” Let me congratulate the victors 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 peoples’ acceptance of the party in 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 political leadership of the state and to 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.”
