The 10th National Assembly’s Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has been elected.
Senator Abdulaziz Yari was defeated by the legislator from the Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District (Ikot Ekpene), who received 63 votes to the latter’s 46.
Senator Akpabio was hailed as the All Progressives Congress (APC) national working committee’s chosen candidate in the run-up to the election.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima also backed Senator Akpabio, publicly stating that the Presidency is firmly behind the former governor of Akwa Ibom State.
This would be Senator Akpabio’s second term in the Senate after he won the legislative election in Akwa Ibom State on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform the same year he handed over administrative duties as governor of the state.
Chief Inibehe Okorie of the All Progressives Congress (APC) received 15,152 votes to beat Akpabio, who received 422,009 of the 439,449 votes needed to be proclaimed the victor by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He was chosen by the PDP caucus to serve as the Senate Minority Leader of the eighth National Assembly.
However, once Akpabio announced his exit from the PDP in August 2018 and joined the APC to launch his bid for a second term in the Senate, tensions between the two parties erupted.
Akpabio’s stay in the Red Chambers was brief since President Muhammadu Buhari named him as one of his cabinet nominations in July 2019.
Throughout President Buhari’s final years in power, he served as Minister of the Niger Delta. However, he resigned from that position to run for President. Later, he abandoned his candidacy for the current President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.