Nigerian Senate President Godswill Akpabio on Monday met former INEC Commissioner Mike Igini for the first time after Igin oversaw the 2019 elections in which 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.
“Today (Monday), I attended the 2024 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Lagos. At the annual conference, I met for the first time the former Resident Electoral Commissioner of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Igini.
“Mr Igini presided over the 2019 general elections in the state when I ran for the Senate,” Akpabio wrote on his Facebook page.
The Senate president posted photos of himself and Igini. In one of them, the two men are shaking hands firmly while smiling at each other.
Mr. Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, won a landslide victory in the 2015 election to represent Akwa Ibom North West District in the Senate under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Despite being his first time in office, he was elected Minority Leader of the Senate controlled by the All Progressives Party (APC).
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In 2018, Akpabio defected to the ruling APC party, on which platform he sought a second term in the Senate in 2019, but was defeated by PDP candidate Christopher Ekpenyong, a former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom.
Not only did Mr. Akpabio lose the election, but the INEC ad hoc electoral officer in Akpabio district was convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment for falsifying the election results in favour of Mr. Akpabio.
At the time, Mr. Igini, INEC's Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akwa Ibom, oversaw the conduct of the elections, during which Mr. Akpabio suffered a humiliating defeat.
Furthermore, under Mr. Igini's supervision, INEC secured the conviction in court of the ad hoc official, a professor named Peter Ogban.
Akpabio's supporters in Akwa Ibom hated Igini, whom they falsely accused of stealing Akpabio's victory. Meanwhile, the electoral officer was receiving praise across the country for his transparency and firmness.
Many in Akwa Ibom regarded Igini as Senator Akpabio’s “albatross” in the state’s politics.
Akpabio and the 2023 senatorial elections
Mr. Akpabio, in 2023, secured the APC ticket for the Akwa Ibom North West District election in controversial circumstances after he initially contested the APC presidential primaries and later resigned in favour of Bola Tinubu who won the primaries and then the general elections.
However, INEC did not recognise Akpabio and insisted that it had no knowledge of the primary elections that Akpabio claimed to have won.
The electoral commission had insisted that Udom Ekpoudom, a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, be the APC candidate for the district because it (INEC) oversaw the primaries in which Ekpoudom emerged victorious.
The legal battle that ensued between Mr. Akpabio and Mr. Ekpoudom was eventually 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
At his farewell press conference in Uyo in August 2022, Mr Igini said his challenge in Akwa Ibom was that “people were used to manipulating elections and writing results”.
“I came (here) to count votes, not money,” Igini, nicknamed the Son of Man, told reporters who turned up at 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 worked at INEC for ten years before retiring.
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith,” Igini said during his last official appearance in Uyo, quoting a comment by a biblical figure, the Apostle Paul.