On Monday, Nigerian Senate President Godswill Akpabio met Mike Igini, a former INEC commissioner, for the first time since Igini oversaw the 2019 elections, during which Akpabio failed to secure a second Senate term.
The meeting took place 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, Godswill Akpabio, shared photos on social media of his meeting with Mike Igini, a former INEC commissioner.
In one of the pictures, the two men are seen shaking hands and smiling at each other.
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Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, initially won a landslide victory in the 2015 Senate election to represent Akwa Ibom North-West District on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform.
Despite being a first-time senator, he was elected minority leader in the All Progressives Congress (APC)-controlled Senate.
In 2018, Akpabio defected to the APC and sought re-election in 2019, but was defeated by the PDP’s Christopher Ekpenyong, a former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom.
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Following the election, the INEC ad-hoc returning officer in Akpabio’s district, Professor Peter Ogban, was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for falsifying election results in favor of Akpabio.
At that time, Igini, as the INEC resident electoral commissioner for Akwa Ibom, oversaw the election and was credited with ensuring transparency, while Akpabio’s supporters blamed him for Akpabio’s defeat.
Akpabio was perceived by many in Akwa Ibom as having been hindered by Igini, who was otherwise praised nationwide for his integrity.
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In 2023, Akpabio secured the APC ticket for the Akwa Ibom North-West District election amid controversy.
Initially, he contested the APC presidential primary and later stepped down for Bola Tinubu, who won the primary and the general election.
However, INEC did not recognize Akpabio’s claim of winning the primary and instead supported Udom Ekpoudom, a retired deputy inspector general of police, as the APC candidate.
The ensuing legal battle between Akpabio and Ekpoudom was ultimately resolved in Akpabio’s favor by the Supreme Court in January 2023, about a month after the election.
In his valedictory media briefing in Uyo in August 2022, Mr. Igini remarked that 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,” Igini, nicknamed the Son of Man, told reporters who had thronged INEC headquarters in Uyo to bid him farewell.
Mr. Igini retired after five years of service in Akwa Ibom, having been transferred from Cross River State.
He completed a decade of service with INEC before his retirement.
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith,” Igini said during his last official outing in Uyo, quoting a remark from a Biblical figure, Apostle Paul.
