Akwa Ibom Liberation Movement (AILM) has said Godswill Akpabio, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs cannot be victorious in a rerun election in his senatorial district even if it is conducted a 10th time.
In a recent statement by its Secretary-General, Barr. Solomon Abasiekong, which was a reaction to the nullification of the Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial district election by the Court of Appeal, the group said Akpabio and APC are also aware that they lack the required grassroots support to win the rerun.
He added that Akpabio and his party even celebrated the nullification of the election in Essien Udim local government humbly, because they know they cannot win the rerun.
His words, “The losers in the election are half-heartedly celebrating the judgment of the Appeal Court ordering a rerun because the APC and its candidate, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, know full well that it does not have the grassroots support to win the election even if it were to be conducted a tenth time.”
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The All Progressives Congress (APC) is a political party in Nigeria, formed on 6 February 2013 in anticipation of the 2015 elections. APC candidate Muhammadu Buhari won the presidential election by almost 2.6 million votes. Incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat on 31 March. This was the first time in Nigeria’s political history that an opposition political party unseated a governing party in a general election and one in which power transferred peacefully from one political party to another. In addition, the APC won the majority of seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives in the 2015 elections, though it fell shy of winning a super-majority to override the ability of the opposition People’s Democratic Party to block legislation.
Formed in February 2013, the party is the result of a merger of Nigeria’s three biggest opposition parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the new PDP – a faction of then ruling People’s Democratic Party. The resolution was signed by Tom Ikimi, who represented the ACN; Senator Annie Okonkwo on behalf of the APGA; Ibrahim Shekarau, the Chairman of ANPP’s Merger Committee; and Garba Shehu, the Chairman of CPC’s Merger Committee. Ironically, less than 2 years before the party’s historic victory in the 2015 elections, Messrs. Annie Okonkwo, Tom Ikimi and Ibrahim Shekarau resigned from the party and joined the PDP.
The APC is generally considered to be a centre-left political party that favors controlled market economic policies, and a strong and active role for government regulation. A substantial number of its political leaders are followers of or politicians who subscribe to the social democratic political philosophy of Obafemi Awolowo and the socialist and anti-class views of Aminu Kano. Moreover, the majority of the APC’s base of political support is in southwestern Nigeria and Northern Nigeria, which are dominated by the country’s largest ethnic groups, the Yoruba and the Hausa-Fulani, respectively.
The APC support state’s rights, advancing state police as part of its manifesto. Its social policy is a combination of social nationalism. Despite the parties’ domination by pro-devolution politicians like Atiku Abubakar, Bola Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande, the party’s presidential bearer and the CPC wing is less inclined to federalism.
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