Udom Ekpoudom must be recognized by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the legitimate candidate for the Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial district, according to an order from the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
The court of appeal through its three-member panel of the appellate court nullified Godswill Akpabio’s as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial district, as against earlier declaration by INEC.
A Federal High Court ruling ordering INEC to recognize and publish Akpabio’s name as the party’s candidate was also overturned by the panel.
This was made clear by looking at the facts that he only picked the senatorial ticket after he lost the presidential primaries to Bola Ahmed Tinubu of All Progressives Congress (APC) to contest for the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial Districts.
Udom Ekpoudom, however, had already become a candidate after taking part in the primaries, which were overseen by INEC staff.
Fortunately for Akpabio, security violations during the primary election led to the cancellation of the first primary held in the zone on May 28, 2022.
Mr. Akpabio received 478 votes to win the repeat election, which was held. His name was then submitted to INEC as the candidate.
However, INEC continued to refuse to recognize Mr. Akpabio as the senatorial candidate, which prompted him to go to court and sue INEC.
In a previous decision, INEC informed the Federal High Court that Akpabio was not recognized since it only oversaw the May 27 primary election and not the June 9 poll run by the APC’s National Working Committee (NWC). The judge, however, rejected INEC’s argument and declared that Akpabio could not be held accountable for INEC’s inability to oversee the election.
Justice Emeka Nwite, the trial judge, further ruled that only the NWC of a political party may hold legitimate primaries because it was authorized to do so by law.
As a result, he gave INEC the order to recognize and publish Akpabio as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District.
The final list of candidates, which included Akpabio’s name as the APC candidate for the Akwa Ibom Northwest Senatorial District, was released by INEC.
Mr. Ekpoudom appealed the trial court’s ruling after being dissatisfied with it.
Appeal Court’s judgment: In its ruling on Monday, the appellate court determined that Akpabio, an APC presidential candidate, was unable to take part in the legitimate senatorial primary of the same party, which was held on May 27 and was overseen by INEC.
Thus, the court mandated that INEC recognize Mr. Ekpoudom as the legitimate candidate for the Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial district.
