The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Media and Publicity Sub-Committee of the Udom/Moses 2015 Campaign Organisation in Akwa Ibom has dismissed claims in some quarters that the April 11 governorship election in the state was marred by violence and rigging.

“The truth is that in Akwa Ibom State the election went on peacefully. You can adjudge the election in the state to be 98 per cent free and fair,” chairman of the sub-committee, Mr. Aniekan Umanah, said this morning in Lagos.

He told newsmen that “any form of violence and malpractice perpetrated in the state during the election” comprehensively won by PDP’s Udom Emmanuel “was done by the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).”

Umanah, who is also the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Information and Communications, gave examples, including the arrest of Gen. Edet Akpan (rtd.), the first Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), for forcibly taking 10 NYSC members working as INEC ad-hoc staff for the election to his country home to thumb-print ballot papers on behalf of APC.

“In Akwa Ibom, we are PDP, like the rest of the South-South and South-East. If you conduct the election 10 times PDP will win it because there is a foundation of performance by the PDP government of Governor Godswill Akpabio. The people of the state are happy with the PDP administration and trust the incoming administration of Udom Emmanuel to sustain the tempo of development,” Umanah said.

He made it clear that PDP had no reason whatsoever to resort to violence during the election because “you cannot foment trouble where you are strong and in control; it is only the man on the ground that tears your shirt.”

The commissioner advised APC losers to emulate President Goodluck Jonathan and other PDP candidates across the country by calling and congratulating victorious PDP candidates instead of crying wolf whenever APC loses.

Umanah dismissed calls for the cancellation of the Akwa Ibom governorship election, saying that such calls show the poverty of knowledge by those making them since only an election tribunal has the power to cancel a result already declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). He, however, said that challenging Udom Emmanuel’s victory at the tribunal would be futile as he convincingly won the election.

•Photo shows Aniekan Umanah.