Udom Emmanuel, the governor of Akwa Ibom State, has lauded the people of Akwa Ibom as he wins his re-election bid.
Governor Emmanuel, of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, who swept last Saturday’s gubernatorial poll with a total of 519, 712 votes to emerge winner defeated his All Progressives Congress, APC, opponent, Nsima Ekere, who polled a total of 171,978 with a convincing winning margin of 347,734 votes.
Noteworthy is the fact that candidate of the APC lost his local government, Ikot Abasi, to his opponent, Governor Emmanuel of the PDP. Ekere polled 7,549 out of 17,469 total votes cast in the election in his LGA, while Emmanuel scored 9,335 votes to emerge winner in the local government.
Announcing the results at the INEC headquarters, Udo Udoma Avenue in Uyo, the state returning officer (RO,) Professor Faraday Osasere Orumwense, Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), announced that ”the total number of registered voters in the state were 2,119,727, number of accredited voters, 720,064; total valid votes, 696,245; total vote cast, 712,037 and total vote rejected 15,792.
Osasere who declared Udom Gabriel Emmanuel winner at 12.26am on Monday, said, “Having satisfied the requirement of the law and scored total number of votes cast, I hereby declare Udom Emmanuel winner and he is hereby returned elected.”
Reacting to his electoral victory, Governor Udom Gabriel Emmanuel has thanked the people of the state for their love, affections and support for his administration as exhibited in the resounding victory recorded in the Saturday gubernatorial and state House of Assembly elections.
“Let me on behalf of my wife, Her Excellency, Mrs Martha Udom Emmanuel thank you my dear people from the bottom of my heart for reaffirming your faith in my capacity to continue to superintend over the affairs of this God’s own piece of Royal Real Estate,” Governor Udom said in a broadcast in the state.
“I want to commend you for the peaceful manner you went about exercising your civic responsibility; you refused to be shaken or cowed by those who thought they could bend your will; you refused to be intimidated by those who promised Armageddon and war on our people.
“You proved that the army of God could never be defeated by the army of man no matter the size, you deserve our eternal gratitude.”
The governor who said that the election was hard-fought but God gave him the victory, also called on those who ran against him, to join hands with him to build an industrialised state where education, healthcare delivery, food sufficiency, peace and security, infrastructural renaissance, foreign investments shall remain abiding articles of faith.
“We have all we need to be great, the mind-set of our people have been changed, thanks to our Dakkada philosophy, we have great talents and a propelling desire to be successful,” Udom said.
“Our youths are embracing an ownership culture and the need to use the works of their hands and their creative instincts to create wealth for themselves.”
