Appeal Court quashes A’Ibom gov election, demands fresh poll

The Appeal court in Abuja on Friday quashed the election of Governor
Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State on the grounds of irregularities that
characterised the April 11, 2015 poll in the state.
The Justice Uwani Abba-Aji-led five man panel in a unanimous judgment,
ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct fresh
election in the entire 31 local government areas of the state within
90 days.
The appeal court in nullifying Emmanuel's election set aside the
judgment of the Akwa Ibom State Governorship Election Petition
Tribunal which had only nullified the election in only 18 out of the
31 local government areas.
In the lead judgment read by Justice Oludotun Adeofope-Okojie, the
appeal court upheld the appeal by the All Progressives Congress'
candidate in the election, Okon Umana, to the effect that the election
was not conducted in substantial compliance with the provisions of the
Electoral Act.
It held that was over-voting during the election and the ‎the result
announced by INEC returning Emmanuel of the Peoples Democratic Party
as winner, was a mere allocation of figures as there was no evidence
of collation of results at all levels.
It held that while the card reader machine recorded the accreditation
of 437, 128 voters, the INEC announced total votes 1,222,836, leading
to a clear evidence of over-voting.
Justice Adefope-Okojie also held that both the PDP and Emmanuel failed
to discharge the burden on proof placed on them by the evidence led by
Umana and his party.
She held that Emmanuel and his party failed to tender incident forms
used for manual accreditation to make up for the discrepancies in the
number of voters accredited by the machine and the total number of
votes announced by INEC.
Earlier, the tribunal delivered four judgments on appeals, two of
which was filed by Emmanuel, and the rest of the two filed by PDP and
INEC.
All the four appeals were dismissed by the appeal court for lacking in merit.
Emmanuel's first appeal was to the effect that bith Umana and the APC
lacked the locus standi to challenge the outcome of the April 11, 2015
poll at the tribunal because they were not qualify to contest in the
poll having failed to give a minimum of 21 days of notice before
conducting the primary that produced Umana as the party's candidate.
His second appeal sought an other affirming his election in the 18
local government areas where it was cancelled and declare him duly
returned.
The appeals by the PDP and INEC also prayed the same set of prayers.
But all the appeals were dismissed as the appeal court held that the
tribunal rightly cancelled the election in the 18 LGAs.
The appeal court however held in Umana's appeal that with allegations
of irregularities of over-voting‎,non-accreditation of voters and
non-collation of results proven in the entire 31 LGAs, the tribunal
ought to have nullified the entire election.
Emmanuel and others dissatisfied with the judgment still have the
opportunity to appeal to the Supreme Court.