Court Upholds Governor Akpabio’s Election

THE Federal High Court, Abuja Division, yesterday put a judicial seal on the gubernatorial victory of Chief Godswill Akpabio as it declared him the duly elected Governor of Akwa Ibom State.

    In his judgment in a suit brought by a gubernatorial aspirant in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Frank Okon claiming he was unlawfully excluded from the primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on January 15 last year in order to pave way for Akpabio’s emergence as the party’s standard bearer to the governorship election, Justice Abdul Kafarati held that the Court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
In his ruling, Justice Kafarati held that since by his own admission, the Plaintiff (Okon) did not participate in the governorship primary, he therefore lacked the locus standi to challenge the said primary, citing an earlier judgment delivered by the Supreme Court to declare that only candidates who participate in an election can complain about the conduct of the primary