The Akwa Ibom state chapter of the All
Progressive Congress APC, has rejected the
February 3rd Supreme Court verdict that upheld
the election of the state governor, Emmanuel
Udom of PDP.
In a communique issued by the party after a
rally held at Nsima Ekere field along Edet Akpan
Archibong road and signed by the state
Chairman of the party, Amadu Attai yesterday
February 11th, the party called on President
Buhari to set up a panel of inquiry over the
verdict which according to them was procured
through huge financial inducements.
They say they found it strange that the former
governor of the state Godswill Akpabio who is
now Senate Minority Leader and Vice Chairman
of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, came
into the premises of the Supreme Court
immediately after the verdict had been given.
The communique reads
“We want to put on record our utter
rejection of the judgment of the Supreme
Court on the PDP appeal against the
victory of the APC at the Court of Appeal
in the state governorship election petition.
We believe that the judgment of the
Supreme Court is devoid of reason, logic
and depth. The Supreme Court judgment
is a dangerous act of political advocacy
that completely ignores the uncontested
and overwhelming evidence of the
petitioners (Umana Okon Umana and
APC) at the tribunal which had held that
the petitioner had proved that there was
no valid election in 18 of the 31 local
government areas in the state. The
Supreme Court equally rejected the
findings of the Court of Appeal that
established, based on over 340
documentary evidences and 50 witnesses,
that there was no valid governorship
election in all of the 31 local government
areas in the state on 11 April 2015. Some
of the evidences tendered by the
petitioners, on which the tribunal and
Appeal Court based their decisions
include: mutilation of ballot papers and
result sheets; lack of collation; over
voting; signing of multiple result sheets
by one agent and result sheets signed by
people who were not agents. In addition
to these evidences, our candidate and
party had also tendered the reports of the
United States Embassy; European Union;
Nigerian Civil Society organisations and
the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence
Corps (NSCDC) which stated that the
governorship election in the state was
marred by widespread irregularities and
violence. Alluding to these evidences of
violence and irregularities, the Hon.
Justice Oludotun Adebola Adefope-Okojie,
in her lead judgment at the Court of
Appeal had stated emphatically: ‘I chip in
a word of warning. May this country
never again experience the violence and
thuggery found to have taken place in the
state during the governorship election
held on April 11, 2015. Politics should
never be so desperate that lives and
decorum are sacrificed on the altar of
winning at all costs. The descent into
almost anarchy as occurred in this case
must never again be allowed to take
place. The supervising body, Independent
National Electorl Commission INEC is
charged at all times to remain on the side
of truth and never be complicit in any
subversion of due process. We recall that
the case of signing of result sheets in
many wards by one person was also well
established by the Court of Appeal based
on evidence. In Mkpat Enin Local
Government Area for instance, one Jerry
Akpan signed the result sheets in all the
14 wards of the local government area.
As rightly held by the Court of Appeal,
Akpan couldn’t have been at all the wards
simultaneously to sign these documents,
a clear evidence that there was no
collation at the wards, as we had also
presented unchallenged evidence that
there was no collation at the state level.
In the light of the facts of our case and
the overwhelming evidence as upheld by
both the tribunal and the Court of Appeal,
we find the judgment of the Supreme
Court to be weird, arbitrary and an
inexplicable endorsement of violence and
electoral fraud that was procured by the
use of state power and resources for evil
ends. We find it strange but instructive
that on the judgment day, as soon as the
Justices of the Supreme Court retired to
their chamber to consider their judgment,
the Senate minority leader, Senator
Godswill Akpabio, who is also the vice
chairman of the Senate Committee on
Judiciary, arrived obviously on cue at
8pm with a large contingent of praise
singers, and proceeded to address PDP
supporters within the court premises,
telling them that ‘it was all over. With the
shout of his supporters renting the air,
Akpabio caused quite a stir as he swept
into the courtroom in a frenzy of banters
with PDP and Udom Emmanuel’s lawyers
whom he equally assured by repeated
stating: “It is all over.” It was a display
that totally called into question the
integrity of the Supreme Court and
vitiated its judgment on the Akwa Ibom
governorship election petition appeal.
Another unassailable evidence of the
fraud that characterised the April 11 2015
governorship election in Akwa Ibom State
is that Udom Emmanuel who was
declared winner of the election had no
explanation on how 437,128 accredited
voters by card readers or 448, 307
accredited voters by voter’s register could
validly produce 1,122,836 votes
purportedly cast in the election, 996,071
of which were declared for Emmanuel.
These were findings from certified true
copies of INEC documents, which were
upheld by the Court of Appeal. The case
of over-voting and other irregularities
were painstakingly established in 27 local
government areas out of 31, with 2,982
polling units. In his pleadings, Emmanuel
had said that he would tender incident
forms to account for the excess votes,
but they were never tendered, even
though the incident forms were taken to
Abuja from Uyo, because they were filled
several weeks after the election and
therefore could not be signed by the
designated INEC staff. Nigerians should
then ask the Supreme Court how it
reached its findings that Emmanuel was
lawfully returned in spite of this glaring
evidence of over-voting and other mind-
boggling irregularities. We believe such
enquiry is inevitable to address the
possible consequences of the Supreme
Court judgment which is bound to
encourage resort to self-help, violence and
all forms of illegality and barbarity in the
quest for power. We believe that this
purchased judgment from the Supreme
Court does not reflect the president’s
desire to weed corruption from our
society,” the party stressed.” the
communique stated.
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