On Wednesday, Emmanuel Ukpong-Udo’s election to the House of Representatives representing Akwa Ibom State’s Ikono/Ini Federal Constituency was declared void by the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
This media recalls that Ukpong-Udo of the Young Progressives Party, YPP, was declared the victor of the polls on February 25 by the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, following a supplemental election in the constituency.
Glory Edet, a candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), however, put up a fight against his triumph.
The YPP candidate was then dismissed by the Akwa Ibom State National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, which also mandated a rerun.
Unsatisfied with the decision, Ukpong-Udo went to the Appeal Court in an attempt to have the tribunal’s decision overturned.
However, in a decision on the subject on Wednesday, a Court of Appeal panel chaired by Justice Abba Mohammed affirmed the tribunal’s finding and mandated a rerun.
Whether the rerun was mandated for the entire federal constituency or just the polling places where INEC had ruled the results to be inconclusive is unclear, though.