***A Federal High Court has dismissed the application by the PDP seeking to stop the relocation of the National Assembly election petition tribunal from Uyo to Abuja
***Judge dismissed application for lack in merit and substance
***Ruled application null and void following the grounds on which it was filed.
By Jennifer Y Omiloli
A Federal High Court sitting in Uyo, Akwa- Ibom state has declined PDP’s request to stop the relocation of the National Assembly election petition tribunal from Uyo to Abuja.
Justice F.O Riman while delivering the ruling in a suit filed by the state chairman of the party, Paul Ekpo on behalf of the PDP challenging the powers of the Appeal Court president, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa to move the tribunal from Uyo to Abuja, dismissed the application for lacking in merit and substance.
Riman likewise declared the application null and void following the grounds on which it was filed.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom state in a petition by its chairman, Ini Okopido, to the former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Justice Abubakar Malami, urged him to relocate the election tribunal from the state to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Okopido in the petition cited alleged attempts to perpetuate electoral fraud by the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mike Igini in collusion with the Akwa Ibom state government and the PDP to destroy electoral materials needed to substantiate the election petition of the APC as the reason for the demand.
“We have been reliably informed that the resident electoral commissioner is now intimidating electoral officers who participated in the just concluded general elections in the state, particularly, collation officers, supervisory presiding officers, presiding officers and assistant presiding officers to forcefully coerce them to concoct and fabricate false reports of violence and ballot paper snatching,” the petition read.
