From Joe Effiong, Uyo
The federal high court sitting in Uyo has nullified the nomination of Mr Akan Udofia as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Akwa Ibom State.
Udofia was declared winner of the gubernatorial primaries in May this year in a controversial primary after a lot of personality clashes between the APC faction loyal to Sen John Akpanudoedeghe and the faction loyal to Sen Godswill Akpabio.
Before picking the APC nomination form, Mr Udofia had equally purchased the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial nomination form but had abandoned the PDP primaries to contest and win that of the factional APC contest.
Seeing the support given to Udofia by Senator Akpabio and other leaders of the party, Akpanudowedeghe, left the party to secure a gubernatorial ticket for the New Nigerian Peoples Party ((NNPP), while senator Ita Enang, one of those who had aspired to contest the APC primaries, headed to the court claiming that he was validly elected as the party flag bearer in the state.
But in her judgement, Justice Agatha Okeke ruled that Udofia was not a member of the party, having not participated in all the processes of electing a gubernatorial candidate of the party.
She ordered the party to conduct a fresh primary within the next 14 days.