The Akwa Ibom State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja has ordered a fresh governorship election in 18 out of the 31 local government areas of the state.
The tribunal nullified the results of the April 11 election in the state in the 18 local government areas on account of the disenfranchisement of registered voters, and directed the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct a fresh one in the affected areas .
According to the panel, headed by Justice Sadiq Umar, 566,534 registered voters were disenfranchised in the 18 local government areas including Uyo, the state capital, during the April 11 governorship election.
It is the position of the tribunal that the petitioners established that the election did not hold in the aforementioned local government areas and that some of the areas where it held at all, the poll was marred by irregularities, such as irregular voting, ballot snatching and the intimidation of voters.
In arriving at its position, the tribunal rejected the evidence by the petitioners with respect to the rest of the local governments in the state, saying that the the witnesses were not witnesses of truth.
The tribunal held that evidence of some of the so-called expert witnesses called by the petitioner did not show how they came about their findings.
On the non use of card readers, Justice Umar held that the “report on card reader machine tendered by the petitioners was not conclusive” about the number of voters who voted on the election day.
The Akwa Ibom APC has indicated it would appeal the judgment.
The state chairman of the party, Dr. Amadu Atai, is of the view that it adduced sufficient evidence to show there had been widespread irregularities in the governorship poll in all local government areas of the state, and that there were no elections at all in some other LGAs.
According to him, the judgment of the tribunal regarding the governorship election in the state was inconclusive. He noted that the APC has begun the process of appeal.
“The tribunal has cancelled the governorship election in 18 local government areas as it ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct election in the affected LGAs. But we are going to appeal because we expect cancellation in more local government areas where discrepancies were pervasive,” he said.
Incidentally, the Peoples Democratic Party also has issues to grind with the judgement.
Its state chairman, Mr. Paul Ekpo, said that the judgment was very confusing. He added that the only good thing about the judgment was that the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, still remains in power.
Ekpo said the PDP would meet to review the judgment.
He said, “The judgment is very confusing except that my governor, who had won the election overwhelmingly in the state, still remains the governor. The rerun in the 18 LGAs as ordered by the tribunal, as you know we will win. Besides, we will meet at the party level to look at the judgment.”
