The Akwa Ibom Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja on Wednesday nullified the results of 18 out of 31 LGs in the governorship election conducted on April 11.
The Street Journal recalls that the All Progressives Congress (APC), and its candidate in the election, Umana Okon Umana, had approached the tribunal, seeking to nullify the election of PDP’s Governor Udom Emmanuel.
The petitioners had asked the tribunal to nullify the election on the ground that it was marred by irregularities and that the conduct of the election was clearly in breach of the provisions of 2010 Electoral Act, as amended.
Delivering judgment on the petition, the tribunal held that voters in the election conducted in 18 out of the 31 LGs were disenfranchised,but upheld the governor’s election.
The tribunal chairman, Justice Sadiq Umar, who delivered the judgment, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a re-run election in the affected 18 LGAs.
The tribunal further upheld the testimonies of the petitioners’ witnesses that election did not hold in the affected LGAs,and the testimony of Mr Don Etiebet, a former member of the PDP Board of Trustees, whose submissions, it said, were convincing and reliable.
Meanwhile, the APC has said that it was set to appeal the judgment of the tribunal.