Akwa Ibom guber poll: Tribunal upholds Umo Eno’s election

Pastor Umo Eno, who ran on the Peoples Democratic Party ticket, was declared the winner by the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal of Akwa Ibom State.

Senator Bassey Albert Akpan and his Young Progressives Party (YPP) filed a lawsuit, but the court threw it out.

The tribunal presided over by Justice Adekunle Adeleye upheld the preliminary objections concerning the jurisdiction and non qualification of the 2nd Respondent and declared that Eno was eminently qualified to run for election in the suit with the case number EPT/AKW/GOV/01/2023.

The panel decided that the Supreme Court’s earlier ruling in Akan Okon’s case against governor Umo Eno was final and binding on all parties, and that the petitioners had abused the judicial process by bringing it back up again.

The panel further found that the petitioners did not have standing to contest the manner in which the Third Respondent, PDP, held its primaries to select a candidate.

The tribunal further ruled that Eno did not present a forged WAEC certificate, as the WAEC official who was subpoenaed as PW10 authenticated the certificate, and as no other person holds claims to the said 1981 and 1983 WAEC certificates, the tribunal found that there was no legislation in Nigeria that a person’s name should be arranged in a particular order on a document.

The tribunal also found that Bassey Albert Akpan’s PW16, a man named Daniel Edet Akpan who claimed to work at the University of Uyo, was not who he claimed to be.

The tribunal reports that the witness attended the University of Uyo’s Quantity Survey program beginning in 1998 and finishing in 2021, spending a total of over 22 years on the degree.

The tribunal speculated that his appearance in court while wearing a fez cap and mask was an indicator that he was hiding something and that he was not a senior member of the university’s staff, as he had no idea what CONTISS was and had forgotten his phone number.

In the end, the tribunal agreed with Eno’s election as governor of Akwa Ibom State and rejected the appeal as without merit.

Eno’s attorneys have voiced their approval of the verdict and have urged all stakeholders to rally behind the governor in order to advance the state.

Tunde Olaola, petitioners’ counsel, countered that the tribunal was not the final stop because appeals might be filed.