Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill
Akpabio has confessed to manipulating
the result of a 2007 Peoples Democratic
Party senatorial primary election in the
state by single-handedly replacing the
winner with the name of his preferred
candidate.
Akpabio, who is also the PDP Governors
Forum chairman, made the confession
when a delegation of the National Good
Governance Tour visited the state on
March 9.
The tour, which was recorded with a
video camera, was led by the Minister of
Information, Mr. Labaran Maku. The
video which went viral on Sunday was
as of 8.47pm viewable on
premiumtimes.com, the website of an
online Nigerian news portal, Premium
Times.
The governor made the confession
while defending his claim of being fair
to the people of Ini and Ikono.
He was responding to a question that
he had not impacted the lives of the
people of the two communities,
especially in the area of roads, schools
and other public infrastructure.
The communities form part of Ikot
Ekpene Senatorial District. Akpabio said
he struck out the name of the person
who won the PDP primary election and
replaced it with Aloysius Etuk.
Etuk went ahead to win the senatorial
election. He remains a serving senator
having won a reelection in 2011.
The governor said, "The people of Ikono
and Ini (Local Government Areas) from
1960 have never produced a Senator.
"I used my own hand to strike out the
name of the person who has won
before, and I said it is important for me
to give that region a Senator in 2007,
and I produced Senator Aloysius Etuk
for you; that's where he comes from."
Etuk, who was in attendance at the
town hall meeting, confirmed the claim
when Akpabio asked him to stand up
and "take a bow".
The governor's confession shocked
many in attendance.
The governor, who was later hinted of
the implication of his claim then sought
to further clarify it.
He said, "So, I must say that I thank all
of you, including the members of the
National Assembly led by Senator
Aloysius Etok. And when I said that I
made Aloy(sius Etok) to become a
senator in 2007, I need to explain it so
that you don't think that I wrote his
name and he became a senator.
"During the primaries of the PDP, we
zoned the Senate seat to his federal
constituency. And from the federal
constituency, he came first in the
primaries. That happened in the PDP. So
we said since he was the first among
the people who came from his federal
constituency for the primaries, then he
must be the one to become the
senator."
SOURCE: mobile.punchng.com/output.php?link=http://www.punchng.com/news/akpabio-admits-rigging-primary-election/

That was not rigging， it was zoning. Why has the other guy not gone to court? It was an understanding they had among all contestants.

sammyzacks: That was not rigging， it was zoning. Why has the other guy not gone to court? It was an understanding they had among all contestants.

Just like the understanding between PDP about zoning of the presidency that was later flouted? Our politicians are the greatest enemies of this so called democracy.
Its this capability that earned him PDP governors forum chairmanship.