Akpabio, Igini meet for first time after Akpabio lost the 2019 Senate election

The President of the Nigerian Senate, Godswill Akpabio, on Monday, met Mike Igini, a former INEC commissioner, for the first time after Mr Igin superintended over the 2019 elections in which Mr Akpabio failed to return to the Senate for a second term.

The duo met at the 2024 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association in Lagos.

“Earlier today (Monday), I attended the 2024 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Annual General Conference in Lagos. At the annual conference, I met, for the first time, the former Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akwa Ibom State, Mr Igini.

“Mr Igini presided over the 2019 general elections in the state when I ran for the Senate,” Mr Akpabio wrote on his Facebook page.

The Senate president uploaded photos of himself with Mr Igini. In one photo, both men have a firm handshake while they grin at each other.

Mr Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, secured an overwhelming victory at the 2015 poll to represent Akwa Ibom North-West District in the Senate under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Despite being a first-timer then, he was elected the minority leader of the All Progressives Party (APC)-controlled Senate.

Mr Akpabio, in 2018, defected to the ruling APC, a platform he sought a second term in the Senate in 2019, but was defeated by the PDP candidate, Christopher Ekpenyong, a former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom.

Not only did Mr Akpabio lose the election, but the INEC ad-hoc returning officer in Akpabio’s district was convicted and sentenced to three years for falsifying election results in favour of Mr Akpabio.

At the time, Mr Igini, the INEC resident electoral commissioner in Akwa Ibom, superintendented over the conduct of the election, during which Mr Akpabio suffered a humiliating defeat.

Also, under Mr Igini’s watch, INEC secured the conviction of the ad-hoc official, a professor named Peter Ogban, in court.

Mr Akpabio’s supporters in Akwa Ibom hated Mr Igini, whom they falsely accused of robbing Mr Akpabio of victory. Meanwhile, the election official was being praised nationwide for his transparency and firmness.

Many in Akwa Ibom regarded Mr Igini as Senator Akpabio’s “albatross” in the state’s politics.

Akpabio and the 2023 senatorial election

Mr Akpabio, in 2023, got the APC ticket for the Akwa Ibom North-West District election under controversial circumstances after he initially contested the APC presidential primary and later stepped down for Bola Tinubu, who won the primary election and later the general election.

However, INEC did not recognise Mr Akpabio. It insisted that it was unaware of the primary election Mr Akpabio claimed he won.

The election commission had insisted on Udom Ekpoudom, a retired deputy inspector general of police, as the APC candidate for the district because it (INEC) monitored the primary, in which Mr Ekpoudom emerged as the winner.

The legal battle that ensued between Messrs Akpabio and Ekpoudom was finally decided in favour of Mr Akpabio by the Supreme Court in January 2023, about a month after the election.

I came to count votes, not money – Igini

In his valedictory media briefing in Uyo in August 2022, Mr Igini said his challenge in Akwa Ibom was that “the people were used to election-rigging and writing results.”

“I came (here) to count votes, not money,” Mr Igini, nicknamed the Son of Man, told reporters who had thronged INEC headquarters in Uyo to bid him farewell.

Mr Igini retired after serving in Akwa Ibom for five years. He was transferred to Akwa Ibom from Cross River State.

He served in INEC for ten years before his retirement.

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith,” Mr Igini said during his last official outing in Uyo, quoting a remark from a Biblical figure, Apostle Paul.