The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal challenging the election of Senator Godswill Akpabio as Senator representing Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial district.
In the unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Moshood Oredola on Friday, the Appellate Court dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit and upheld the decision of the Lower Tribunal.
Justice Oredola said that although, there was an error in one of the nomination papers which indicated that Senator Akpabio stood for election for Akwa Ibom North-East, the mistake was however, successfully corrected in all other documents.
The Judge also held that the oral evidence of appellant witness and that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) successfully rebutted the case of non-qualification alleged by the appellant.
The Appellate Court also said that Senator Akpabio met the requirements of section 65 subsection 2 of the 1999 Constitution which clearly states that ‘a person can only contest an election if he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that political party’.
The court, however, held that evidence showed that there was no other candidate for Akwa Ibom North-West for the PDP as such, it is clear that nobody was deceived as to the candidature of Senator Akpabio.
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