Action Congress set to begin legal challenge in Akwa Ibom

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has advised Gov. Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State not to roll out the drums yet over his ‘re-election’, because his so-called victory was achieved through the blood and tears of innocentcitizens who were robbed of their votes. The party said the victory will be challenged in court.
In a statement issued in Lagos by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said it has massive pictorial and video evidence to prove to the world that what is being held out as an election in Akwa Ibom on April 26 is nothing but an unprecedented and barefaced rigging and mindless violence.
ACN therefore disowned the Akwa Ibom State Chairman of the party, Aniekan Akpan, for unilaterally taking up a newspaperadvertorial on Sunday to congratulate Gov. Akpabio and also accept the result of the 26 April gubernatorial election in the state.The party said Akpan acted on his own and that his action should be disregarded by all members and supporters of the ACNbecause it does not represent the stand of the party.Itsaid necessary disciplinary action will be meted out to the deviant chairman, who apparently belongs to the group of”food is ready” politicians and definitely does not share in the ideals of the ACN.”
Aniekan Akpan has not always acted in consonance with the ideals of our party, and his romance with Gov. Akpabio is nota secret. But as a party that believes in fairness and justice, every member is entitled to the benefit of doubt until he or she decides to dance naked in the public square, as the Akwa Ibom state chairman has now done,” ACN said.
On ACN’s stand on the elections, the party noted: ”The standard procedure is for the National Executive Committee to meet anddeliberate on the elections, take reports from all stakeholders in the states and then set up a legal team to examine submission fromthe various states. It is only after this that the party can take a stand on the elections.”In the case of Akwa Ibom, ACN said it is particularly hasty and untenable for anyone to congratulate Gov. Akpabio, consideringthe acts of unprecedented electoral malfeasance and brigandage perpetrated by the PDP and its cohorts during the gubernatorialelection.”It is therefore a great disservice to our numerous party members and supporters, who were subjected to untold acts of brigandageand disenfranchisement by the PDP rigging machinery, to turn around and congratulate their tormentors. We are a party of ideals anddiscipline, hence we have grown from controlling just one state to six presently. Had we chosen to align with out tormentors, as Aniekan Akpan has thoughtlessly done now, ACN as a party will not be in existence today,” the party said.Ithowever urged its supporters in Akwa Ibom to remain calm and allow the party to use due process, as it has always done, to dealwith the issue of mass rigging, violence and disenfranchisement, in the true and time-tested style of the ACN