Update: Appeal Court Voids Governor Emmanuel’s Election, Orders Total Rerun Statewide

SAN FRANCISCO, December 18, (THEWILL) – The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Friday annulled the entire April 11 election which ushered in Mr. Udom Emmanuel of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as Governor of Akwa Ibom state.

The higher court in its lead judgment ruled that the Akwa Ibom Governorship Election Petition Tribunal erred by only voiding election results from 18 out of the 31 Local Government Areas, LGAs, ‎in the state.

The victory of Emmanuel in the April 11 election was challenged by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Umana Okon Umana.

At the election tribunal, Emmanuel had secured partial victory, with the outcome of the elections cancelled only in 18 out of the state’s 31 local government areas. The tribunal had retained Emmanuel as Governor, but ordered a rerun in the affected LGAs.

While Umana and his party approached the appellate court seeking for an outright cancellation of the entire election, Emmanuel also challenged the ruling, insisting he won in all 31 LGAs.

But in a unanimous judgment del‎ivered by Justice Adefunke Okojie, the five-man panel of Justices invalidated the Certificate of Return that was issued to the PDP flag bearer ‎by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and ordered the electoral body to conduct a fresh governorship election in the state within 90 days.

Noting that the tribunal was wrong in its refusal to comply with section 179 (2) of the Constitution, the higher court averred that having agreed with the evidence of principal witnesses, video evidence, and evidence from state collation agents, the tribunal would have concluded that there was no collation and that votes were merely allotted.

“The question is; if there was no collation, can there be said to be an election,” the court asked, adding that “Indeed where there was no collation of election, there cannot be said to be an election.”

The appellate court which maintained that the tribunal was wrong in failing to nullify the entire election, the court ruled, setting aside the judgment of the tribunal in the 13 LGAs, ruled that “The entire election is hereby nullified. The election that brought Mr. Udom is hereby nullified”.