Candidates of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), backed by the All Progressives Congress (APC), made a major political statement in Akwa Ibom State, winning the rerun elections into the Ikono/Ini Federal Constituency and Ibiono Ibom State Constituency, on Saturday.
The victory of the YPP candidate, Hon Emmanuel Ukpong-Udo, has thus increased from three to four the House of Representatives seats won by the APC/YPP coalition in Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District.
The victory of Ukpong-Udo was more significant because the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, represents the North-West Senatorial District of the state in the Senate.
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.
Recalled that the entire structure of the YPP from the ward to the state levels, was recently collapsed into the state chapter of the APC.
The YPP 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, defected into the APC at the Political Pavillion of Akpabio in his Ukana home.
The victory of the two APC-backed candidates is thus seen as a master stroke and potent political message to the ruling party in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), of the readiness of the APC to take over the reins of government in 2027.
Akpabio congratulated the duo immediately they were announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as winners in the two rerun elections.
The Senate President described the victory of the YPP candidates in the rerun elections as a demonstration of the people’s acceptance of the APC 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 people’s acceptance of the APC 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 political leadership of the state and to finally link the state to the centre,” he stated in a release by his Special Assistant on Media (Print), Jackson Udom.
Akpabio 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 election coming up later in the year.”
