Why Tribunal Nullified Akwa Ibom Gov. Election In 18 LGAs

The Akwa Ibom State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, sitting
in Abuja, yesterday, cancelled the governorship election results in 18
local government areas, LGAs, in the state. A three-man panel of
Justices at the tribunal, headed by Justice Ishaq Umar, ordered the
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct re-run
elections in the affected LGAs.

The tribunal said it was satisfied that a total of 566, 436 voters in
the areas were disenfranchised during the governorship election that
held in the state on April 11, 2015.

According to the tribunal, section 108(2) of the Electoral Act,
empowered it to, in view of circumstances that surrounded the
governorship election in the 18 LGAs, nullify the outcome and order
INEC to organise a re-run.

Specifically, it listed the LGAs where INEC must conduct a re-run poll
as: Etim-Ekpo, Uyo, Ibesikpo, Onna, Ikono, Oruk-Anam, Uruan, Ibeno,
Ibiono Ibom, Nsit-Ibom, Nsit-Ubium, Ini, Oron, Nsit-Atai, Etinan,
Udung-Uko and Eket.

Though the petitioners, the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its
governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom State, Chief Umana Okon Umana,
alleged that the governorship poll was fraught with manifest
irregularities, the tribunal, maintained that the alleged electoral
anomalies and non-compliance with the Electoral Act, were not enough
to warrant outright nullification of election results from all the 31
LGAs in the state.

"This petition partly succeeded. INEC is hereby ordered to conduct a
re-run election in 18 LGAs.

There
will be no order as to cost. Parties are to bear their cost," the
tribunal ruled.
Preliminary objections: Earlier, the tribunal dismissed preliminary
objections that were raised against the petition by Governor Udom
Emmanuel and his party, the PDP.

Udom and Umana
The two respondents had urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition for
want of merit.
They contended that the APC did not field a valid candidate at the
poll. The respondents argued that the notice APC gave to INEC before
it conducted its primaries that produced Umana as its governorship
candidate for the April 11 poll, failed to meet the compulsory 21
days stipulated by the Electoral Act.
The tribunal overruled PDP on the premise that the issue of nomination
of candidate for an election was a pre-election matter that was
outside its mandate.
Meantime, the petitioners, through a total of 58 witnesses produced in
the course of the proceedings, told the tribunal that the governorship
election was a sham.
Besides alleging that electoral materials were hijacked by armed
thugs, the petitioners, told the court that election did not hold in
many parts of the state. The petitioners contended that what obtained
in Akwa Ibom State on April 11 was a partial election, alleging that
figures were merely allotted to the PDP candidate. The APC urged the
tribunal to go ahead and determine whether in view of the weight of
evidence it tendered against the election, including seven video
recordings, governor Udom could be said to have secured majority of
the lawful votes cast, to warrant his declaration as winner of the
election.

Among those that testified before the tribunal that governorship
election did not hold in the state included the former governor,
Chief Obong Victor Attah, and former Minister of Petroleum Resources,
Chief Don Etiebet.

The petitioners prayed the tribunal to set aside the Certificate of
Return that was issued to governor Udom and order a fresh election in
the state.

Nevertheless, in its judgement that lasted over seven hours, the
tribunal, held that the allegations that the petitioners raised
against the governorship election were criminal in nature, stressing
that it ought to be proved beyond every reasonable doubt.

-Vanguard