Over 1,000 Akwa Ibom Youths Storm INEC Office, Demand REC’s Removal

The Akwa Ibom State Secretariat of the Independent National Electoral Commission was blocked on Wednesday by more than 1,000 youths under the auspices of the Coalition of Political Parties in the state, demanding the immediate dismissal of the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mike Igini.

The protesters displayed placards with various inscriptions and chanted “Igini Must Go” “Igini is biased”, “Democracy is not for sale”, “INEC must act now”, “Akwa Ibom REC is compromised, Igini don’t kill Akwa Ibom political parties”, “Igini is partisan”, “Igini is a factional Chairman of a party”, among several others.

Speaking while addressing the protesters, the leader of the group, Ubok-Obong Umoh, said an investigation should be conducted into Igini’s unfriendly behaviour against the main opposition party in the state.

According to Umoh, between 2019 and now, Igini has demonstrated a lack of faith in Nigerian democracy as well as playing the script of the Akwa Ibom State Government.

He accused Igini of acting on the instructions of the PDP government in the state, adding that nothing the APC or any other opposition party did that was acceptable to him.

Also, the state APC Youth Leader, Awak Clement, said Igini “is not the only REC that Nigeria has and questioned why he should pick himself out to oppose the APC in the state.”

He claimed that Igini had publicly declared war against the APC even before the primaries and for peace to reign in the state, the REC should either resign or be outrightly sacked.

He further questioned why Igini should assume himself as the Supreme Court to reject the judgement delivered by the Federal High Court.

To prevent the peaceful protest from degenerating into a disastrous one, Clement pleaded with the INEC headquarters to act quickly.

In response, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mike Igini, blamed the APC for the situation that sparked the demonstration.

Igini charged the party with forgery, alleging that the APC in the state had faked a letter that allowed Stephen Ntukekpo to be sworn in as the party’s chairman in defiance of a court order.

He insisted that Austin Ekanem, and not Stephen Ntukekpo, be recognized by INEC as the legitimate state chairman of the party.

This article was originally published on Naija News