![](\"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/storage\/2019\/12\/Akwa-Ibom-Senator-Ekpenyong-hails-Akpabio-Buhari.jpg\")
<\/p>\nEkpenyong pointed out that Akpabio\u2019s decision not to contest against him would bring peace and harmony to the state.<\/p>\n
This was contained in a statement he made available to newsmen at the weekend.<\/p>\n
He said the minister\u2019s action was \u201ca welcome development that will foster peace, unity and development of the Senatorial District.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawmaker further commended President Muhammadu Buhari, for the \u201cgood gesture\u201d in the appointment of Senator Akpabio, as one of his Ministers and expressed confidence that the former Senate Minority Leader would effectively deliver on his assigned duties.<\/p>\n
Ekpenyong urged other APC candidates not to contest in the rerun ordered by the Appeal Court in other areas in the state but instead \u201cfollow the Akpabio\u2019s example and withdraw from the race for a holistic peace and unity in the zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a Senator of Nigeria and not for a particular political party. My mission to the Senate is align with my colleagues from the state and other political appointees to attract development and peace to the people of my Senatorial District,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI commend my brother for his decision to withdraw from the court-ordered rerun in Essien Udim, and that will go a long way to calmed frayed nerves and create the enabling environment for the dividends of democracy to thrive beyond party lines,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Senator Christopher Ekpenyong, has hailed the decision of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, to withdraw from the Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial district rerun election. Ekpenyong pointed out that Akpabio\u2019s decision not to contest against him would bring peace and harmony to the state. This was contained in a statement he made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":176170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[2658,4365,3064],"class_list":["post-176169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-a","tag-akwa-ibom","tag-godswill-akpabio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=176169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/176170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=176169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=176169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=176169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}