23rd June, 2019
A witness stunned the National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal in Akwa Ibom State when he presented a document confirming that Senator Godswill Akpabio won the Akwa Ibom Northwest senatorial election.
Counsel to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Mr. Solomon Umoh, SAN had given the witness, Mr. Godwin Afangideh a document presented by the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) to read to the tribunal.
The document was an exhibit presented by INEC in a petition filed by Senator Godswill Akpabio of the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging the declaration of Engr Christopher Ekpenyong (PDP) as the Senator for Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District.
Reading from the document given to him by Counsel to PDP, the Witness, Mr Afangide said “My Lord even from this document APC scored a total votes 61,329 and PDP scored 9,050 in Essien Udim Local Government Area and it is recorded here.”
Mr Umoh, SAN had attempted to prevent the witness from reading that part of the document.
Mr Afangide had earlier tendered results collated from Wards across the Local Government Area as given to him by the party agents which clearly showed that Senator Akpabio had won the election in his own Local Government Area with a wide margin.
The Witness expressed surprise at the voters’ register tendered in court and said it was different from the one that was used on election day. He confirmed that he had voted along with his family members.
According to Mr Afangide the elections in Essien Udim Local Government Area were very peaceful as attested by security agencies, local and foreign observers.
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