Obong Godswill Akpabio of the Akwa Ibom North West and Dr. Ahmad Lawan of Yobe East Senatorial Districts of the All Progressives Congress (APC) emerged winners in the Saturday’s National Assembly election.
Akpabio was the Senate Minority Leader while Lawan is the current Senate President.
Both won nominations to represent their Senatorial districts through Supreme Court verdict as Akpabio triumphed over Udom Ekpoudom, a retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police.
Also read: Lawan and Akpabio make APC senatorial list
Jubilation rocked the declaration of Akpabio’s second coming by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Akwa Ibom.
Professor Anthony Udoh, who made the declaration in the early hours of Monday, said that the former Minister Niger Delta Affairs had satisfied all conditions to be declared the winner, having polled 115,401 votes.
The candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Emmanuel Enoidem, who came a distant second, polled 69,838 votes.
In his reaction shortly after his declaration, Akpabio thanked the people who trooped out en mass to cast their votes for him, promising to represent them well in the red chamber.
According to Akpabio, ‘‘I stand before you all this morning to personally and publicly register my appreciation for the show of love and support which led to my victory today. I am very grateful because you did not allow your conscience to be bought over even when they brought money from Uyo. You rejected their money and voted for me.”
He stated that “serious attempts were made by the state government to truncate this victory just as they did in 2019, but your resolve to protect this mandate has led to this well-deserved victory. I am very grateful, and I won’t take this for granted.
Akpabio, whose speech was intermittently laced with songs, pledged his constituents quality representation at the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, Lawan has won, by a landslide, the Senatorial election for Yobe North, in Yobe State.
The Senate President, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was formally declared winner on Sunday night by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which announced that Mr Lawan polled 91,318 votes.
That performance represents 74.7 percent of the total valid votes (122,193), to defeat his closest rival, Bello Ilu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 22,849 votes.
This is the seventh parliamentary election won consecutively by Mr Lawan into the National Assembly since 1999, the first two of which gave him ticket to the House of Representatives while the last five gave him ticket to the Senate.
There was controversy over Mr Lawan’s candidature for the election. He had initially tried to be president. But after he was defeated in the presidential primary by Bola Tinubu, he returned to join the senatorial race.
At the time he joined the senatorial race, the party had nominated a candidate in the person of Bashir Machina.
However, in a bid to accommodate Mr Lawan, the APC shoved Mr Lawan aside, conducted a fresh primary, which the Senate president won.
The party then proceeded to submit the Senate president’s name to INEC as its candidate for the senatorial zone.
The protracted battle over the ticket went all the way to Nigeria’s Supreme Court, which, eventually, resolved it in Lawan’s favour.
