The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has released a list of the 36 governorship candidates that will run for governor in Akwa Ibom State, representing 36 political parties.
Pastor Umo Eno of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was included on the list, which was signed by INEC's secretary Rose Oriaran Anthony, along with Akon Eyakenyi as the deputy governorship candidate. Bassey Akpan, a senator running for the Young Progressive Party (YPP), and James John Udoedehe, a candidate for the NNPP, were also included on the list.
All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate Ekpo Bassey and Udo Augus, who would serve as his deputy, were also approved as candidates for governor.
Ezekiel Etok of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Iboro Robert of the AAC are also included on the list; all three have been given the go-ahead by INEC to run for governor.
The commission did not state why the All Progressives Congress, or APC, did not field a candidate for the governorship election in Akwa Ibom State, but investigations revealed that the party was involved in an internal conflict that forced the governorship primaries held earlier this year to be held in two different states.
The other candidate, Ita Enang, a former adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari, is currently suing the commission over the claimed nomination of Akan Udofia as the party's governorship candidate, despite the fact that the panel failed to release the candidate's name.
Two days prior to the APC governorship primary elections, Enang asserted that Akan Udofia was a governorship candidate on the PDP ticket and that Udofia shouldn't have been chosen to represent the party.
Businessman Udofia had already chosen Victor Antai to be his running mate and had been busy consulting stakeholders in advance of the election campaign when INEC omitted his name from the list of candidates for governorship.