An atmosphere of heightened expectation has enveloped Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital as voters eagerly await the commencement of the governorship and state assembly polls opening in less than 24 hours.
Though the state government has declared Friday March 8 as public holiday to enable workers travel to their various communities in readiness for the Saturday polls, it is business usual in Uyo, the state capital as people go about their normal business activities.
Government offices including banks and other financial centres have been shut due to the public holiday, private transport operators are busy as usual.
According to observers, the governorship and the state assembly elections in state would likely be a two-horse race between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) and their candidates.
For the PDP, it is going into the elections with a clear advantage having won the national assembly elections, electing all the three senators and the 10 federal lawmakers on its platform.
With the governorship position set to rotate among the three senatorial districts of the state one after the other, voters in Akwa Ibom South senatorial district where the incumbent Governor Udom Emmanuel hails from are likely to throw their support the re-election aspiration of their son.
In the same vein, the people of Akwa Ibom North East senatorial district who are expected to produce the next governor by 2023 are mostly highly to tenaciously hold onto the zoning and would not likely do anything to rock the boat.
For Akwa Ibom North West senatorial district where the incumbent senator, Godswill Akpabio who defected from the PDP to APC in August last year lost his bid to return to the red chamber of the national assembly, voters in that senatorial district are also most likely to vote along with their counterparts in other parts of the state in solidarity with the zoning principle having been a beneficiary of the scheme.
According to a chieftain of the PDP in the senatorial district, if they fail to honour the zoning arrangement, it would take them donkey years before someone from the zone would become the next governor.
Though there have been reports of allegedly militarization of the Niger Delta region ahead of the election, the Akwa Ibom police command has given assurance that the elections would be peaceful adding that the security forces were on hand to perform their professional responsibilities.
This is however coming on the heels of the arrest of 153 suspected thugs allegedly coming from Edo state to cause mayhem in the state.
Addressing newsmen, DSP Idiko MacDon said after preliminary investigation, the suspected thugs were APC youths from Edo extraction who were on their way to the state to attend the final APC youth rally which was scheduled to hold March 7.
He urged the people to go out and vote without fear of any form of molestation and intimidation saying the command would leave no stone unturned to provide adequate security in the state.
