Two names of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidates for the March 11 election in Akwa Ibom State are seen to adorn the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) portal, Straightnews has discovered.
Under Amendment 4 on the INEC Portal dated February 15, 2023, Michael Enyong’s name is contained as the PDP Governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom State.
Enyong is a two-term member representing Uyo/Uruan/Nsit Atai/Ibesikpo Asutan Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.
Also read: 2023 elections: INEC Publishes Akwa Ibom PDP Governorship candidate
Published on Page 2 and signed by Rose Oriaran-Anthony, Secretary, INEC, the portal cited Court Order as the reason for the publication.
But, a similar INEC portal has published Eno, Umo Bassey aged 58 and in the qualification column: FSLC, GCE, BSC, MSC, as the PDP governorship candidate for the March 11 election in Akwa Ibom.
The commission in its Amendment 5, Page I is also signed by Rose Oriaran-Anthony, Secretary, INEC and is dated February 24, citing court order as reason for the restoration.
The restoration followed a judgment by an Appeal Court in Abuja which nullified the January 20 ruling of the Federal High Court which sacked Mr Eno.
A three-member panel of the appellate court led by Hamman Barka had in its ruling on the appeal filed by the PDP held that the lower court’s decision was based on errors.
In the beginning
The PDP conducted its governorship primary in the state on 25 May 25 last year at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo in which Mr Eno, a former commissioner for Lands and Water Resources in the state, polled 993 votes to clinch the party ticket.
His closest rivals, Onofiok Luke and Akan Okon, tied on three votes each in a primary that recorded two void votes from the 1, 018 delegates accredited for the exercise.
It was alleged that Enyong was not allowed to elect ad-hoc delegates for the governorship race and his name was not on the ballot for the primary election.
Perhaps, this forced Enyong to have boycotted the exercise.
He was reported to have held a parallel PDP primary in his residence in Ewet Housing Estate, Uyo where he emerged the winner.
He, thereafter, got the results of his primary validated by an Abuja Federal High Court, which declared him as the authentic PDP governorship candidate in the state.
Dissatisfied with the judgment, the PDP filed an appeal and got the judgment upturned by the Court of Appeal which ordered the restoration of Mr Eno as the PDP governorship flag bearer on the basis that the lower court.
Cross Appeals
But, Manfred Ekpe, who wrote PDP cross appeals holds a different view.
To him, a cross-appeal is a court judgment may partly favour a person and partly does not.
Writing in his Facebook timeline, a legal practitioner noted that ‘‘cross appeal is, therefore, a situation whereby one or both parties in a lawsuit are aggrieved with aspects of the same judgment. This means such aspect of the judgment he is aggrieved of did not favour him.
‘‘In that case both parties are liable to appeal against such unfavorable aspect of the same judgment.
‘‘So, when the first person filing the appeal does so, his opponent must also file his own appeal against the aspect of the judgment that did not favour him while at the same time responding to the appeal of his opponent in the same legal process. This means he has cross-appealed.
‘‘In law, a cross-appeal is an independent appeal by itself. See the case of _Unity Bank PLC & Anor. v. Mr. Edward Bouari (2008) 7 NWLR (Pt. 1086) 372 at 413_ .
A cross-Appeal is as good as the party filing it being deemed to have filed an appeal against the very judgment which a layman thought he won!
A person who is completely satisfied with a court Judgment does not Cross -Appeal. He only responds to the appeal of his opponent.
So why do you think Pastor Umo Eno (acting as PDP) cross-appealed? It is because he is not happy with certain aspects of the judgment which does not give him what he wanted.
So Umo Eno acting in the name of PDP (PDP in truth has no problem with Baba Ntan), is filing a cross-appeal to the Supreme Court against the Court of Appeal judgment.
What is the aspect of the Court of Appeal Judgment that does not favour him and against which he is cross-appealing?
It is the aspect of the judgment that failed to declare him the PDP governorship candidate, and the aspect of the judgment that refused to issue a consequential order mandating INEC to delist Baba Ntan and list him as a candidate.
Both Eno, Baba Ntan and PDP technically lost that appeal!
The Court of Appeal had only declared the judgment of the federal high court a nullity and nothing more.
Legal effect of the Court of Appeal judgment
By the Court of Appeal declaring the judgment of the Federal High Court a nullity without pronouncing on Umo Eno’s fate or legal right, technically, PDP has no Governorship Candidate in Akwa Ibom State! This is the bitter truth.
However, since Baba Ntan has filed an appeal and obtained Stay of Execution, the doctrine of status quo applies, and he, Baba Ntan remains the PDP Governorship Candidate in Akwa Ibom State until, and except the Supreme Court decides otherwise.
Forgery allegations, expulsion
The police in Akwa Ibom State had invited Mr Enyong for questioning for alleged forgery after the lawmaker got the results of a parallel PDP primary conducted in his house validated by the court.
“Mr Enyong conducted his primary in his own house in Uyo and after the charade he went and forged what he claimed was the results of the primary, spread the results across, shared the votes and forged the letterhead paper of PDP and signatures of the PDP National Chairman, Secretary, Organising secretary, Electoral Officer and the Returning Officer.
“He forged the document to create the impression that he has the result sheet in his hand and these are the issues they (police) are asking him to answer. How Mr Enyong came about the documents he’s handling which he used to file a false affidavit before the court,” said the director of litigations in the PDP campaign council in the state, Uwemedimo Nwoko.’’
Following his invitation by the police, Mr Enyong obtained a court order restraining the police from inviting, arresting and detaining him.
The Federal lawmaker was, thereafter, expelled by a local chapter of the party over the forgery allegations.
