Tribunal Dismisses PDP Petitions, Upholds Election Of Eteng's APC

By Victor UDU

The National Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal has dismissed the petition of Rt. Hon. Bassey Ewah of People's Democratic Party (PDP) and declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial candidate, Sen. Williams Jonas Eteng, as the authentic winner of the February 25, senatorial elections.

In the judgment delivered on Friday, in Calabar, the Tribunal chairman, O.A .Adeniyi, ruled that the petitioners, Rt. Hon. Bassey Eko Ewah and PDP itself failed to prove their allegations of electoral practices substantially in line with electoral law.

He ruled that the onus lies on the petitioners who alleged to prove their case which cccording to Adeninyi they did not do and therefore dismissed their petition.

But the Tribunal upheld the allegations of over-voting in 49 polling units and accordingly cancelled the affected areas and deducted the votes from both parties.

And after the deduction, APC polled 53, 375 votes and PDP scores 51,387 votes and based on the above, the Tribunal declared APC's Eteng duly elected as the winner of central senatorial district election.