On Wednesday, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja sacked a member of the House of Representatives, Emmanuel Ukpong-Udo who was representing the Ikono/Ini Federal Constituency of Akwa Ibom State in the House.
Delivering judgement on the matter, Justice Abba Mohammed upheld the judgement of the Akwa Ibom State Election Petition Tribunal, which had earlier sacked Ukpong-Udo, who was the candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) in the election.
According to the judgement of the appellate court, Ukpong-Udo was sacked because the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared him the winner of the election contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, the Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of the Election 2022, and the Manual for the Election 2023.
News About Nigeria recalls that INEC had declared Ukpong-Udo the winner.
According to the result declared by the Commission, Ukpong-Udo polled a total of 19, 926 votes to defeat the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election, Mrs. Glory Edet, who scored 15, 765 votes.
Dissatisfied with the result of the election, the PDP and its candidate dragged Ukpong-Udo to the Akwa Ibom State National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, where he was sacked from office.
Ukpong-Udo who was not satisfied with the judgement of the tribunal, which sacked him from office and ordered a re-run, prayed to the appeal court to set aside the judgement of the lower court.
However, in it’s judgment on the matter on Wednesday, a panel of the Court of Appeal led by Justice Abba Mohammed upheld the tribunal’s verdict, ordering a rerun.
