The Peoples Democratic Party has asked the Akwa Ibom State National/State Houses of Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja to nullify its earlier proceedings on the petition challenging the election of a former Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio, as the senator representing Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial district in the 8th Senate.

Akpabio has since been appointed the Minority Leader in the Senate.

But the petition challenging his election was filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the March 28, 2015 National Assembly elections, Chief Inibehe Okori.

The motion by the PDP asking for the nullification of the tribunal’s proceedings and the dismissal of the petition was filed after the petitioners (Okori and the APC) had called many witnesses in proving their petition.

The PDP, which is the third respondent in the petition, predicated its fresh motion on the grounds that the petitioners failed to properly apply for the commencement of the pre-hearing session as required by law before going into the hearing of the petition.

The Justice Goddy Anunihu-led tribunal has fixed the hearing of the PDP’s motion for August 25.

However, in their response to the motion, the petitioners through their counsel, Amauche Onyedun, said they had validly applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission and paid for the issuance of the pre-hearing conference notice, Form TF 008.

She contended that the PDP’s motion seeking the dismissal of the petition by the tribunal on the sole ground of invalid issuance of Form TF 008 was insufficient and not supported by Paragraph 18(1) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act, 2010.

The lawyer added that the pre-hearing session was validly commenced and that by the virtue of the steps the PDP had taken so far in the hearing of the petition, its application could not be competently raised by the virtue of Paragraph 53((2) of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act.

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