Kayode Sesan
In a ruling that lasted over 7 hours on Wednesday, the Akwa Ibom State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja nullified the results of the April 11 governorship election in 18 local governments of the state and validated the results from 13. It said the election in the affected local government areas were marred by violence and other infractions.
Below are the details of the ruling:
- Tribunal led by Justice Sadiq Umar ordered INEC to conduct fresh elections within 90 days.
- Tribunal was silent on the prayer of the petitioner, Mr. Umana Okon Umana, seeking the invalidation of the election of Governor Emmanuel Udom, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
- Tribunal dismissed INEC statement mandating the use of card readers for the election saying it violated section 49 of the Electoral Act.
- Tribunal dismissed the forensic report tendered by the petitioner on the ground that the persons that generated the report are not forensic professionals.
“The card reader report is not a conclusive report to ascertain the actual number of accredited voters. That press release concerning the card reader report is null and void as it offended the provisions of section 49 of the Electoral Act, which deals with the process of accreditation in an election,” Justice Umar said in the ruling.
__________
Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng
Copyright 2015 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.
