The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has sacked Emmanuel Ukpong-Udo as a member representing Ikono/Ini Federal Constituency of Akwa Ibom State in the House of Representatives.
The appellate court in its judgement on Wednesday, January 17 nullified the election of Ukpong-Udo, Premium Times reported.
The judge, Abba Mohammed described Ukpong-Udo ‘s election as a violation of the Electoral Act 2022, Regulations and Guidelines for the conduct of the Election 2022 and the Manual for the Election 2023.
The appellate court upheld the judgement of the Akwa Ibom Election Petition Tribunal which had earlier sacked Ukpong-Udo.
The sacked lawmaker was first elected to the National Assembly in 2019 under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform, but he later defected to the Young Progressive Party (YPP).
The Court of Appeal ordered a rerun of the election, but it is not clear if the rerun was ordered in the entire federal constituency or polling units INEC had declared the results as inconclusive.
INEC had declared the 25 February election in the area inconclusive and conducted supplementary election on April 15, 2023.
The supplementary election was also cancelled due to violence and ballot box snatching.
