2007 Senatorial polls: “I struck out the name of the person who won and replaced with another” – Gov Akpabio

Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State over
the weekend stunned his audience, when he
confessed on a live broadcast that he personally
altered the result of a senatorial election result in the
2007 general elections.
Akpabio made this revelation while speaking during
the visit of Good Governance Tour Team in Uyo, Akwa
Ibom State capital, Premium Times had reported.
Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, led the
delegation made up of a number of government
officials and journalists.
In his address, Akpabio, who had listed his
achievements, later caused a stir, admitting that he
removed names of the winner of the Akwa Ibom
North senatorial primaries, and replaced with Aloysius
Etok.
Senator Etok is currently the Chairman of the Senate
Committee on Establishment and Public Service
matters.
According to Akpabio, “The people of Ikono and Ini
(Local Government Areas) from 1960 have never
produced a Senator,” the governor narrated.
“I used my own hand to strike out the name of the
person who had won before, and I said, it is
important for me to give that region a Senator in
2007, and I produced Senator Aloysius Etok for you;
that’s where he comes from.”
The statement generated indistinct murmurs among
the bewildered crowd.
Minutes later, an aide to the Governor passed a note
to his boss, ostensibly to call Akpabio’s attention to
the comments he made earlier.
The Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party
Governors’ Forum, then read the note and in a bid to
retract the statement said, “So I must say that I thank
all of you, including the members of the national
assembly; led by Senator Aloysius Etok. And when I
said that I made Aloy(sius Etok) to become a senator
in 2007, I need to explain it so that you don’t think
that I wrote his name and he became a senator,” the
governor said.
“During the primaries of PDP, we zoned the senate
seat to his federal constituency. And from the federal
constituency, he made first in the primaries. That
happened in the PDP. So we said since he was the
first among the people who came from his federal
constituency for the primary, then he must be the
one to become the senator.”
“We presented him before the general public in the
election and he won. And in 2011, with my support,
he had the highest number of votes by any senator in
the entire national Assembly,” he said.