Date Published: 06/20/11

Akpan Udoedehe not constitutionally qualified to contest Guber Poll -Akpabio tells Tribunal
...Lists 300 witnesses, says ACN’s petition incurably defective.
...None of us won the election—ACN candidate.

Godswill Akpabio

Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Obot Akpabio has said that his main challenger in the April 26th, 2011 governorship poll in the state, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe was not constitutionally qualified to contest the poll due to the constitutional flaws in his nomination by the Action Congress of Nigeria {ACN}.

His contention was contained in his reply to the petition by the ACN’s governorship candidate who is asking the tribunal to cancel the election and order a re-run since none of the candidates that stood for the election could be validly returned as winner.

Akpabio of the Peoples Democratic Party {PDP} was declared the winner of the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission {INEC} having polled 957,585 votes to the petitioner’s 163,449 votes.

In the governor’s address taken out by the former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Bayo Ojo SAN, the tribunal was asked to dismiss the petition because it was incurably defective. The governor told the tribunal that ACN failed to satisfy all requirements of the law in nominating Akpanudoedehe who defected from the PDP, as its standard-bearer for the election.

He also claimed that “the petition is incurably defective and in contravention of Section 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 {As Amended} for failure of the petitioners to join several individuals including members of security agencies against whom they have made largely criminal allegations”.

“All the witness Statements on Oath attached to the petition are incompetent and liable to be struck out/and or expunged for non-compliance with the provisions of the Election Tribunal and Court Practice Direction 2011 and the Oaths Act”.

Based on these convictions, the governor said he would be challenging the competency of the tribunal to hear the allegedly defective petition, which he termed as “lacking in merit, frivolous and time-wasting”.

In the former minister’s petition wherein the governor, his deputy; Nsima Ekere, PDP and INEC were the co-respondents, it was alleged that said poll was “vitiated by corrupt practices and/or substantial non-compliance with the mandatory statutory requirements which substantially affected the validity of the said elections that none of the candidates in the said election can be validly returned as having validly won the said election”.

Akpabio who had listed about 300 witnesses against the petitioner’s claims, pointed out to the tribunal that the governorship election in the state was generally accepted to be free and fair which prompted the chairman of the ACN Akwa Ibom State chapter to pay a congratulatory visit to him at the Government House, Uyo and conceded victory on behalf of his party.

He added that the executive members of the ACN in Eket Local Government and party agents also conceded victory in the election and went ahead to place a newspaper advertorial congratulating him which would form part of his evidence to the tribunal.

The tribunal had last Monday ordered the INEC to allow the two contending parties access to materials used for the said election and cooperate with their forensic and biometric experts.

The tribunal however at the prodding of Ojo, rejected three prayers by the petitioners on the usage of the election materials to prove their case.

No date has been fixed for the pre-trial conference.