ABUJA—The Court of Appeal, Abuja, Tuesday, dismissed the appeal by an aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Engr. Frank Daniel, seeking to upturn the election of the Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State.

Okon, in the appeal, had asked the appellate court to cancel the Akwa Ibom State PDP governorship primaries of January 9 on the ground that he was excluded as a governorship aspirant.

The legal team of Governor Akpabio, led by Mr Paul Usoro (SAN), had insisted that the re-run primaries was duly concluded on January 15 with Engr. Okon on the ballot and was shown live on television networks across the country.

According to Akpabio’s counsel, the suit was academic in nature, purposeless and undeserving of the court’s judicial time given the fact that Engr. Okon’s complaint was against the January 9 governorship primaries, the results of which were cancelled by the PDP.

Engr. Okon had argued that the complaint of being unlawfully excluded by the PDP in the gubernatorial election of January 9 had not in any way been addressed by the cancellation of the first primary and the conduct of the January 15 re-run election.

The court, in its judgment, dismissed the appeal and awarded a cost of N40,000 in favour Governor Akpabio.