Sen Ekpenyong calls for review of electoral act

Sen. Christopher Ekpenyong, Senator representing Akwa Ibom North-West, has called on the National Assembly to look properly into the Electoral Act, so as to give Nigerians the opportunity to choose their leaders.

Ekpenyong made this call while speaking with journalists on Thursday in Abuja after he was sworn in as a senator by the President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan.

The swearing-in comes as a result of Ekpenyong’s victory at the just concluded rerun election ordered by the court and conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Jan. 25.

“Thank God, I have come back to meet the discussion on the Electoral Act amendment because I am going to contribute.

“What I have seen practically, the Electoral Bill and Act must be looked into properly and reviewed to give Nigerians the opportunity to choose their leaders.

“Most importantly, our Electoral Act needs to be reviewed to give an opportunity; People are talking about the electronic voting system; yes electronic voting system would have been good if every Nigerian was educated.

“But when you look at the poor, the uneducated in the farm, what we should do now is to make sure the card reader becomes a very strong device, both in accreditation and determination of who votes in the elections.

“And it must be the card reader that determines the vote that is being cast, and not just saying when we go to the court, the court will say the card reader is just a mere device and not recognised by the law.

“So, we must make sure the card reader is recognised by the law, so we can improve on our electoral system, according to him”.

While fielding questions on what to be expected from him as a senator from Akwa Ibom North-West Constituency, Ekpenyong pointed out that his people always come first, and as such, they will be properly empowered.

According to Ekpenyong, barely 24 hours after his election, he went on to empower some people of Akwa Ibom North West.

“I think it was 24 hours after my elections; I empowered 108 people from Akwa Ibom North West.

“I did not do any frivolous dancing (sekem dancing), I did not invite dancers and bands and trumpet blowers, and all I did was invite one per ward because I have 108 wards.

“I invited them to the hall in my local government area, and brought even somebody from Abuja, from the Border Community Agency, because that is where the senatorial district project was housed in 2019.

“What I did was that whatever was released by the Federal Government, I took it back to the people and made sure they were taught on two things – Fishery; because I am a fish farmer and Poultry; because I am a poultry farmer.

“They were thinking that they were going to be empowered two weeks after, or one month after, but they were surprised when I emerged with cash, none of them left there with anything less than N100, 000.

“I told them I started business in 1989, October 4th, with the sum of N300, not N3,000, I said if you take this money and buy 3kg or 4kg of pullets, which is about 200, and nurture them, in 3 or 4 months, when you start selling, you would have made more than N500,000.

“That is how I impacted on my people, and that is just the beginning; in the 2020 budget, whatever is entrenched in it, they will get more and more,” he said.

Sen. Christopher Ekpenyong of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) defeated Sen. Godswill Akpabio of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the January 25, 2020 rerun election for Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District.