By Emeka Samuel
Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District in the February 23rd Senatorial election, Chief Godswill Akpabio, and his party, have approached the Election Tribunal, sitting in Uyo, to kick-start the legal processes seeking to challenge his defeat at the polls.
This followed the withdrawal of his case filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, which sought to challenge the result of the election as declared by INEC in his Senate re-election bid.
An aide to Akpabio who pleaded anonymity said the petition was submitted to the Secretary of the panel last week.
Akpabio is seeking to upturn the victory of Mr Christopher Ekpenyong and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), based on allegations by him and his party of electoral irregularities.
The former Senate Minority Leader, had during the election, besieged the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), alleging cases of infractions and deliberate violations of the electoral law and guidelines during the senatorial election.
INEC had declared Ekpeyong winner of the poll, having scored 118,215 as against Akpabio’s 83,158 while Akpabio and the APC claim to have secured 138,256 votes as against Ekpeyong’s 123,843 votes.
Dissatisfied with the conduct and outcome of the election, the former governor of Akwa Ibom and his party vowed to approach the election petition tribunal to ventilate their grievances as well as reclaim their “stolen mandate”.
