Akwa Ibom State Governor Umo Eno has made an appeal to the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos, urging the court to dismiss the appeal brought before it by Senator Bassey Akpan of the Young Progressives Party (YPP). The appeal challenges the judgment of the Governorship Petitions Tribunal, which had confirmed Umo Eno as the validly elected Governor of Akwa Ibom State following the March 18, 2023, election.
In the course of the hearing, the governor, represented by lead counsel Paul Usoro, SAN, disputed the arguments put forth by the appellants, emphasizing that the Supreme Court’s judgment regarding certificate forgery was applicable to various entities, including PDP, INEC, the court, and other establishments. He stressed the importance of concluding legal proceedings and requested that the appeal be dismissed since the matter had been addressed by the highest court in the land.
The appellants, jointly represented by Tunde Falola, expressed their dissatisfaction with the tribunal’s ruling, which upheld the preliminary objections of the respondents and dismissed the petition. They argued that the second respondent, Umo Eno, was not qualified to contest the election due to presenting a forged certificate to INEC and not being elected by a majority of lawful votes cast at the election. They presented 18 witnesses to support their claims.
Counsel to INEC, Kolapo Kolade, SAN, pointed out that the petitioners failed to produce the true owner of the certificate they claimed did not belong to Umo Eno and provided no concrete evidence of forgery.
Counsel to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Tayo Oyetibo, SAN, highlighted the discrepancies in the first appellant’s, Bassey Albert, documents, which bore different arrangements of his name. Despite these arguments, he asserted that the first appellant claimed ownership of all three documents.
Additionally, the governorship candidate of the Accord Party, Emem Coffie, presented an appeal seeking to overturn the judgment of the lower trial tribunal in his favor. He argued that other candidates in the election were not qualified to contest, and he deserved to be declared the governor.
The court adjourned all matters to a later date for judgment, leaving the final outcome of these legal proceedings to be determined by the Court of Appeal.
