A five-man panel at the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Friday cancelled the Akwa Ibom State April 11 governorship election and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct a fresh election within 90 days.

The ruling means Governor Udom Emmanuel’s election has been annulled, although he is expected to head for the Supreme Court.

The All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate, Umana Umana, had approached the Appeal Court asking it to overturn the decision of the election tribunal that cancelled election in only 18 of the 31 local government areas in the state.

Umana appealed against the judgement and asked for the entire election to be cancelled, while Emmanuel challenged it, insisting he won in all the local governments.

In dismissing the governor’s appeal, the court said the lower court should have cancelled the entire election since it agreed with the evidence presented, including testimonies of collation officers, that there was no collation of results in the poll.

“The question is, if there was no collation, can there be said to be an election? Indeed where there was no collation of election, there cannot be said to be an election,” the court said.

“The entire election is hereby nullified. The election that brought Mr. Udom is hereby nullified,” the appellate court ruled.