Akwa Ibom guber aspirant describes primary as invalid, says he’s still in the race while urging supporters to remain focused

Akwa Ibom frontline governorship hopeful, Senator Bassey Albert aka OBA has assured his teeming supporters that he is still in the race to the Hilltop Mansion, urging them not to be deterred by recent happenings in the polity.

The Senator while speaking on Arise Television recently also charged them to be focused on the goal, describing the PDP governorship primaries earlier held on Wednesday as a sham.

He noted that he along with the over 70 aspirants contesting various elective offices, had written to the national leadership of the party regarding the faultlines of the purported primaries which is the reason they boycotted the exercise.

According to him, as law-abiding citizens, they decided to obey a valid court decision, which ordered that the parties in the suit before the Federal High Court, Abuja, should maintain the status quo antebellum.

The implication of the decision, according to Senator Akpan is that since the order affected the processes which produced the Adhoc delegates, PDP technically has no candidate since there was no valid one to vote during the primaries.

He noted that from his understanding, both the parallel governorship primary organised by Hon. Mike Enyong and the one held by a PDP faction at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium were invalid, in the eyes of the law.

He said as a lawmaker, he could not get involved in promoting illegality, expressing the confidence that when PDP is ready to carry out a proper primary, he and other aggrieved aspirants will participate.

OBA decried the current crime-ridden situation in PDP nationally, saying it is not helping in strengthening internal democracy in the party.

Senator Akpan, who is one of the 15 PDP governorship aspirants cleared to contest in Akwa Ibom, however, called on his teeming supporters to remain hopeful, insisting that he was still in the race to win.

Akpan who is the current Chairman of, the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (upstream), corroborated an earlier statement made available by his campaign Spokesman, Dr Usoro I. Usoro, that it was expedient to strongly assure all his teeming supporters that there is no cause for alarm as he and the entire leadership of his campaign organisation were working hard to actualise their “predestined victory”.

The Statement had urged his allies to “continue to remain faithful, calm and prayerful for our God is able to do that which seems impossible to man.”