A’Ibom Guber Election’23: Free, Fair, Credible – Cleric
By The Evangelist News edition, March 23, 2023.
The just concluded governorship election in Akwa Ibom State which threw up Pastor Umo Eno of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner has been described as the best conducted since the return of democracy in the state.
Pastor Eno won a landslide victory beating his opponents Senator Bassey Albert Akpan of the Young Progressive Party (YPP) and Obong Akan udofia of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who scored second and third positions respectively.
Addressing journalists on Wednesday in Uyo, the state capital, a renowned Cleric of African church and social crusader, Rev. Richard Peters said the election which he voted for and have hast-hand information from international and local observers including practicing journalists that covered the state has been described as the best so far.
According to him, ” I reliably gathered that apart from minor skirmishes in few isolated areas where opposition parties tried to cause infractions and were checked by security agencies, the process and outcome of the election had received wide applause across the state.
Rev’d Richard Peters further described as baseless the allegations of vote buying, bullying and intimidation of voters being circulated online by those who lost the election stressing that even the allegation of killing of people earlier peddled is yet to be authenticated by relevant authorities nor the name(s) of the persons involved made public.
”How can a group of politicians alleged that people were killed on social media without any iota of evidence, no pictures, no name, and the international and local observers could not authenticate that such took place during the election, it’s another baseless rumour to discredit a credible election we had last weekend”
The Cleric maintained that the last election was not only credible but very free as people voted their conscience in a very conducive atmosphere and their votes counted emphasising that nobody has disputed results from the units.
He further highlighted, ” The outcome of the election is the outcome of the wishes of the people of Akwa Ibom state who are yearning for the sustainability of peace and development we have recorded in the last eight years. People have voted for a government that will ensure they sleep with their eyes closed at night.
Peters said the emergence of pastor Umo Eno means the state will thrive on the positive side of development stressing that those who have canvass doom for the state during the election were disappointed their expectations failed.
He noted that God’s hand showed mightily in the affairs of the state in the last election by giving the people a serene and peaceful process while security agencies did their mortal best to ensure that there were no infractions.
He appealed to the opposition to embrace peace and join hands with Pastor Umo Eno to take the state to the next level stressing that being a man of God, the Governor-elect has said severally that he holds no grudges against anyone.