The Court of Appeal sitting in Calabar has affirmed the victory of Governor Udom Emmanuel of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 9 gubernatorial election in Akwa Ibom State.
The appeal was filed against the judgement of the tribunal delivered on September 5, 2019 in Uyo, which dismissed Mr Nsima Ekere’s petition for lacking in merit.
The tribunal had held that the petitioner could not lead credible evidence to prove his claims that the elections were not conducted in substantia compliance with the Electoral Act.
Delivering judgment in the appeal filed by Mr Nsima Ekere, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), challenging the re-election of His Excellency, Mr Udom Emmanuel in the March 9, 2019 Gubernatorial Elections, the five-man panel gave their judgement on all the issues set out by parties in the appeal.
The Appellate Court first affirmed the decision of the tribunal rejecting series of documents filed by the petitioner at the tribunal and held that the reasoning of the tribunal were unassailable, citing that the documents which were all public documents could not be admissible if they were not properly brought as Certified True Copies of the public documents sought to be tendered.
Furthermore, on whether the tribunal was right in holding that the Petitioner/Appellant did not lead credible evidence to prove their case, the Court of Appeal affirmed the tribunal’s judgment and upheld the tribunal’s findings on evidence.
The Appellate Court noted that out of the results of twenty one (21) Local Government Areas challenged, the petitioner did not lead any evidence to prove their case in eight (8) and led very scanty evidence which on cross examination were rendered very impotent in the other local governments where they made any effort to prove their claims.
The court again held that the decision of the tribunal was unassailable on that score and therefore affirmed same.

Friday Nwagbara, Calabar