Senate Minority Leader and senator representing Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District, Godswill Akpabio’s election was on Friday upheld by the Court of Appeal in a unanimous decision.

Delivering judgement, Justice Moshood Oredola held that Akpabio was duly elected and dismissed the appeal of the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate Inebehe Okori.

According to the court, the error in one of the forms, which indicated that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate contested for Akwa Ibom North-East, was not enough to disqualify him since the mistake was corrected in every other form and the court was satisfied with the explanation given by the respondent.

Okori had approached the Appeal Court seeking to overturn the Election Petition Tribunal decision to uphold Akpabio’s election, hinging his argument on the fact that his rival was not duly nominated by his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, an argument the court dismissed.

“From the totality of the evidence placed before the court it is evidently clear that the error in one of the nomination papers which contained Akwa Ibom North-East for Akpabio instead of Akwa Ibom North-West has been clearly and satisfactorily explained to the court without any ambiguity,” the judge said.

“It must be stated here that there could be mistake of fact and mistake of law and where there is remedy to be applied with law, the court must not hesitate to use appropriate law to resolve such mistake to the satisfaction of both parties.

“In the instant case, the Appellant made a case in the error contained in one of the nomination papers and the Respondents, especially Senator Akpabio and his party, PDP, successfully proved to the court beyond reasonable doubt that an error that can be corrected in law was made and the error was successfully corrected with oral and other available documentary evidence the prove that the error was made in a good faith,” the court held

Justice Oredola said the right of the people of Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District, who came out to vote for their choice, could not be wished away because of a simple mistake in one of the nomination forms.