Akwa Ibom Elections Petition: Witness narrates how Akpabio lost, Says; “No Mathematical Formula can make him win”

The court room was turned into a mathematics lecture hall today, as Dr Anietie Akpan, a lecturer with the University of Uyo testified as the last witness for the 2nd Respondent, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the petition filed by Senator Godswill Akpabio, challenging the victory of Senator Christopher Ekpenyong in the Akwa Ibom North West senatorial and election.

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Dr Akpan who holds a first degree in Statistics, a masters degree and Ph.D in Business Management was subpoenaed as an expert witness and gave evidence on 115 INEC polling unit result sheets (Form EC8A) available from the National Assembly elections in Essien Udim Local Government Area.

LIST OF APPLICATIONS FOR REGULARISATION OF AREA COUNCIL LAND DOCUMENTS NULLIFIED/CANCELLED BY THE HONOURABLE MINISTER OF FCT

The witness noted that there was no form EC8A for Ikpe Annang and Ukana West 2 amongst the forms given to him for examination.

LIST OF APPLICATIONS FOR REGULARISATION OF AREA COUNCIL LAND DOCUMENTS NULLIFIED/CANCELLED BY THE HONOURABLE MINISTER OF FCT

From evidence available to the court, Exhibit P535, INEC form EC8E, which is the result sheet for the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District, the APC scored a total of 83,158 while the PDP 118,215.

Again, from exhibits available in court from the INEC, APC in Essien Udim scored 6,241 while the score for PDP was 3,422.

The witness revealed that from his professional computation from the EC8A forms, the aggregate of scores credited to the APC from the addition of the figures from each form EC8A, indicating the results from all the polling units where elections were not canceled by INEC amounted to 35,797 and also that the PDP in the same aggregate scored 9,873 votes in Essien Udim.

The witness showed in the end of his analysis that assuming the results claimed by the APC in Essien Udim were correct, that the addition of such result to the general results gotten from the other Local Government Areas making up the Senatorial District, the PDP would still lead with a margin of over 8,000 votes.

Counsel to the Petitioner, S I Ameh, SAN gave indications that he shall be objecting to the admissibility of the evidence as brought into the case by Dr Akpan but opted, in compliance with the rules of the Tribunal to reserve his objection and include same in the final address.

The court consequently admitted the evidence subject to the objection caution as posed by counsel to the Petitioner.

A counsel to the Petitioner who pleaded anonymity however indicated that Chief Akpabio is no longer interested in the petition following the news of his nomination by President Buhari as a member of his cabinet which list is speculated to have been submitted to the Senate today, July 23,2019.