By Jonathan Ugbal
The Speaker of the ninth Cross River State House of Assembly, Honorable Eteng Jones Williams has won the senatorial rerun primaries of the All Progressives Congress, APC in the central senatorial district.
The rerun was necessitated by an order of the Abuja division of the Federal High Court, presided over by Justice Fadimatu Aminu on December 6, 2022. Justice Aminu had ordered a rerun within fourteen days.
At the primaries held at the Ikom township stadium, the three-term Assemblyman polled 270 votes out of a possible 305 valid votes cast.
Only 308 out of the 330 ad hoc delegates were accredited and voted. 305 votes were deemed valid while three were marked invalid.
The Commissioner for Lands in Cross River State, John Inyang emerged as runner-up with 27 votes. Meanwhile, the former Director General of the National Women Development Center, Mary Ekpere-Eta clinched seven votes while one vote was cast for a former Chairman of the board of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Akin Ricketts.
Eteng was subsequently declared the winner by the Chairman of the APC Primary Election Committee, Abdullahi Yuguda who was assisted by his Secretary, Dominic Okechukwu.
Eteng had won the initial primaries. However, dissatisfied with the conduct, Mrs. Ekpere-Eta approached the Court and asked for, among other prayers, the cancellation of the primaries since it wasn’t monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 as amended.