By Chioma Onuegbu

IN the past one week the different political parties in Akwa Ibom fielding candidates for the Saturday April 11, 2015 gubernatorial election have been busy with preparations and series of meetings geared towards delivering their candidates at the poll.

Out of about 16 governorship candidates that will be participating in the Saturday governorship contest only four of the candidates can be said to be really popular among the people.

They are Udom Emmanuel of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Umana Okon Umana of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Helen Esuene of the Labour Party, LP and Bishop Samuel Akpan of Accord even as events have shown that the contest is actually going to be between the APC and PDP candidates

This is because presently in Akwa Ibom State, the PDP and APC are the popular party platforms that are actually on ground and well recognized by the populace.

Udom and Umana

Apart from the emergence of General Buhari as the President-Elect which many view as an advantage for Umana Umana, the campaigns also showed that both candidates have strong structures on ground to be able to win the seat in the state.

PDP supporters are however very optimistic that Udom remains the candidate to beat at the April 11 poll on the ground that Akwa Ibom is a PDP state.

However Eket Federal constituency comprising Onna, Udom’s local government area, Ibeno, Esit Eket and Eket are the key local government areas that Udom is expected to win massively.

In Ikot Abasi/ Eastern Obolo/ Mkpat Enin federal constituency the expectation is that there is going to be split votes among the two candidates.

Other Local government areas where Udom is expected to have upper hand over Umana are Essien Udim where the outgoing governor Godswill Akpabio hails from and Etim Ekpo both in Ikot Ekpene senatorial district

The campaigns however showed that Udom has challenges in Oron federal constituency comprising Udung Uko, Mbo, Oron, Urue/Offiong Oruko, and Okobo. Voters there are still aggrieved that they were denied the governorship slot.

The youths of Oro during a town hall and a one- million -man march in support of Umana/Ukpong in Oron vowed to avert any move to divert election materials to ensure that their votes are not rigged.

However the major area that would determine Umana’s prospect on Saturday is Uyo senatorial district comprising the majority Ibibio ethnic nationality who also form the largest voting population in the state

The aggrieved people of Abak who are not happy with the governor for depriving them their right to produce senator.

The outgoing governor Chief Godswill Akpabio  is however working tirelessly to ensure he breaks the jinx that no governor has single handedly nominated a successor in the history of Akwa Ibom politics,