Akpabio Loses Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial Rerun To Ekpenyong

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the AKwa-Ibom North-West Senatorial District, Chris Ekpenyong has won the rerun election.

The rerun election was held on Saturday in only one local government area namely Essien Udim.

Ekpenyong who was declared winner of the senatorial seat in the 2019 general election by the Independent National Electoral Commmission was sacked by a court ruling which ordered a rerun.

In Saturday’s rerun, according to INEC, Ekpenyong won by scoring  134,717 votes to beat the All Progressives Congress candidate and incumbent Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, who had 83,820 votes.

Akpabio, who is a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, was the Senate Minority Leader on the platform of the PDP. He defected to the APC which is the ruling party at the national level apparently to maintain his then towering political pedigree. He however lost his bid to return to the Senate for a second term in 2019 when INEC declared  Ekpenyong winner of the poll.