text: Conduct of PDP officials disgraceful, says Sen. Akpabio | New Mail Nigeria
  Conduct of PDP officials disgraceful, says Sen. Akpabio
  Former Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio has expressed displeasure with the turn of events during Saturday's presidential and National Assembly elections', saying the process was disrupted by thugs hired the People's Democratic Party (PDP), who did not allow the wishes of the people to prevail.
  Speaking to reporters at his polling unit while waiting for results to be announced, Akpabio said the PDP were shocked with the performance of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election and therefore resorted to carting away result sheets, to disrupt the process. His words: "Today, whenever they are counting votes and the APC is leading, somebody will come from nowhere and grab the result sheet and bolt away.
  "It happened in Abak. The APC was leading so much that the brother of one of the candidates for the federal House of Representatives grabbed the result sheet and jumped through the window of the primary school and attempted to run away in his car. But the army shot at him and impounded the car. He managed to escape.
  "In the local government of Governor Udom Emmanuel, they got angry when they realised that the APC was leading. They attacked the youth corps member and scattered the materials, as if to say why the APC should be leading in Onna, the governor's community."
  Akpabio said what the opposition party did not understand is that the people love him simply because of his good works.
  He said he was shocked with the avalanche of support and show of love he saw the day he defected from the PDP to the APC.
  He added: "I have never seen such a crowd in my life. There were hundreds of thousands of people packed together, but they were patient."
  Similarly, a member of the state House of Assembly, Nse Ntuen, said what he witnessed during the election suggests that the electoral umpire has been compromised. He said: "There are no result sheets in many of the units. Even after voting, you see people coming to cause trouble and harass the voters.
  "This is what we have been saying, even before the commencement of this exercise. It seems that the umpire is not neutral; the umpire is biased. But we did not dwell on that; what we have tried to do as citizens was to mobilise people to come out and vote.
  "On a good day, nobody would vote for any other party here, except the APC. I am sure you have gone round the units in the local government to see what is happening.
  "We have spoken to the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) and he says we should mobilise people to take the results from the units to the oval government collation centres, because at the ward level, we hardly know the collation officers."
  He was optimistic however that the APC will carry the day.
  The election in Akwa State was generally peaceful, but for a few flash points where violence was witnessed.
  The exercise started late in many units, due to the late arrival if voting materials.
  It was also as if the two major parties concede superiority to their opponent in places where they know they cannot win, by not bothering to have representatives in such units.
  For instance, when The Nation called at the voting unit of Senator Bassey Albert, there was no APC agent on hand. Similarly, there were no PDP agents at Senator Ita Enang and Senator Godswill Akpabio's polling unit.
  As at 6.30pm when our correspondent left Akpabio's polling unit, the results for the three voting points within the complex were yet to be declared.