From Joe Effiong, Uyo
No fewer than 15 petitions have so far been received by the National Assembly and governorship election petitions tribunal sitting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
The tribunal Secretary, Ibrahim Usman, who disclosed this to newsmen in Uyo, yesterday, said the petitions were filed by five political parties, including the All Progressives Congress (APC), Young Progressives Party (YPP), New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), Labour Party (LP) and Allied People’s Movement (APM).
He added that out of the 15 petitions received, 11 were filed against the conduct of the House of Representatives and the Senate, four.
He also disclosed two motions filed by YPP for inspections of election materials have been granted by the tribunal.
“Similarly, application by APC in respect of governorship election for inspection of election materials was received and petition granted. We are in the process of effecting service of the petitions on the respondents,” he said.
According to him, the senatorial petitions received were from Akwa Ibom North East and Akwa Ibom South senatorial districts while no petition was received from Akwa Ibom North West.
The Akwa Ibom North East (Uyo) senatorial district election and Akwa Ibom South (Eket) senatorial district elections were respectively won by Aniekan Bassey and Ekong Bassey of the PDP, while that of Akwa Ibom North West (Ikot Ekpene) senatorial district, was won by Godswill Akpabio of the PDP.
Usman said the Electoral Act allows 21 days for the petitioner to file petition from the date of declaration and 21 days for the respondents to file their responds after receiving.
The tribunal secretary did not disclose whether there was any petition filed so far against the governorship and state House of Assembly elections, which the PDP won the governorship and 23 seats in the state legislature.
He did not also disclose which of the parties had the highest number of petitions.
In the same vein, the tribunal in Bauchi State has received 15 petitions from individuals and political parties on the just concluded governorship, national and state House of Assembly elections.
Secretary of the tribunal, Ibrahim Kala, stated this in an interview with the newsmen, yesterday, in Bauchi.
He said 10 of the 16 petitions were for the House of Representatives seats while five were for senatorial elections conducted on February 25.
Kala said three of the five petitions were challenging the Bauchi North senatorial district election, one for the Bauchi Central and one for the Bauchi South senatorial district election, respectively.
For the House of Representatives, Kala said the tribunal received petitions in respect to Shira/Giade; Katagum, Zaki, Jama’are/Itas, Ningi/Warji and Bauchi federal constituencies elections.
Others were Ganjuwa/Darazo, Misau/Dambam, Alkaleri/Kirfi, Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa federal constituencies elections.
“For the governorship election, we have not received petition yet, however, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, former chief of air staff, Sadique Abubakar, has just filed an application for inspection of election materials from Independent National Electoral Commission.
“Also, we have not received any petition yet from the state House of Assembly election.
“We are still expecting because they have 21-day time frame after the day of the announcement of the election results,” he said.