Akwa Ibom governorship aspirant in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), wants the Federal High Court in Uyo, to disqualify Umo Eno, the party’s governorship candidate, for allegedly presenting forged certificates.
Mr. Akan Ekpe Okon who said Eno, a pastor was declared in error to participate in the governorship race prayed the court to declare him the winner.
In a Suit no. FHC/UY/CS/110/2022 and dated June 7, 2022, the plaintiff joined PDP, Eno and Independent National Electoral Commission as defendants.
He alleged that Eno presented to the PDP governorship screening committee which sat in Port Harcourt “forged West African School Certificates said to have been issued to him in 1981 and 1983 respectively. He also presented forged voter’s card as well as altered his date of birth.”
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Okon averred that the 2nd defendant who was cleared by the committee to participate in the primaries of the 1st defendant and who actually participated in the primaries was cleared in error as he presented forged West African School Certificate said to have been issued to him in 1981 and 1983 respectively.
The plaintiff argued that the defendant also presented forged voter’s card as well as altered his date of birth and so ought not to have been cleared to participate in the primaries.
‘’Under particulars of forged WASC, the plaintiff alleged the candidate number in the West African General Certificate of Education presented by the 2nd Defendant to the Governorship Screening Committee of the 1st Defendant is 15725119, whereas all the candidates that wrote West African Examination Council General Certificate of Education, Ordinary Level ‘O’ Level do have the first two digits as 06 not 15.
”The signature of Chairman of Council and the Registrar of council on the certificate of the 2nd defendant are all boldened but other certificates issued by West African Examination Council for that year do not have boldened signatures of the principal officers of West African Examination Council. The implication is that the certificate of the 2nd Defendant has computer generated signatures of the Chairman and Registrar of the examining body.
”When certificate presented by the 2nd Defendant to the Governorship Screening Committee of the 1st Defendant is compared with genuine certificates issued by the examining body, it will be noticed that the letter CD and PO are the only boldened items, the alphanumeric that follow are not boldened as seen on the certificate presented by the 2nd Defendant.
”Photocopy of the certificate presented by the 2nd Defendant to the Screening Committee of the 1st Defendant fails to show the security background of the examining body. It only shows a white background, admitting that West African Examination Council, General Certificate of Education, Ordinary Level candidate No. 15725119 and Certificate No. PO 275878A from December 1983 was not issued by the Council to the 2nd Defendant,’’ he claimed.
Mr Okon further claimed Mr Eno altered his date of birth resulting in three different dates of birth – 24/25 April 1964 and January 1, 1964.
He argued that the date of birth presented by Mr Eno to the State House of Assembly when he was screened as a commissioner nominee was different from the one on his voter’s card and the one he received best wishes during his 58th birthday anniversary.
The plaintiff alleged that the date of birth presented by Mr Eno to the State House of Assembly when he was screened as a commissioner nominee was different from the one on his voter’s card and the one he received best wishes during his 58th birthday anniversary.
In the writ of summon, Okon gave the Defendants 30 days after service of the writ to be entered in the suit of the plaintiff.
The PDP in Akwa Ibom State held its governorship primary on May 25, 2022 in Uyo where Mr Eno was declared a winner after polling 993 votes.
Mr Okon who also participated in the primary held at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo scored three votes.
A total of 13 aspirants were cleared to participate in the primary but three of the aspirants- Bassey Albert, a senator and Onofiok Luke a House of Representatives member and Apostle Aniekan Akan Etim- formally withdrew from the exercise, citing court order and non-participation of statutory delegates in the exercise.
The PDP in Akwa Ibom State held its governorship primary on May 25, 2022 in Uyo where Mr Eno who polled 993 votes was declared winner.
Okon, therefore, urged the court to disqualify Mr Eno and declare him the winner of the primary.
Uche S. Awa, SAN together with other four lawyers of Hallmark Chambers, Aba in Abia State is counsel to the plaintiff.
2nd Defendant’s shots
Addressing hundreds of his supporters who thronged the Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo, on Thursday to receive the 2023 PDP flagbearer, Pastor Eno told the enthusiastic crowd to ignore what he called Akan Okon’s empty and futile desperation to stop the manifestation of the people’s project come 2023, describing all failed attempts at blackmailing him out of the race as a proof of the biblical admonition that “a man’s enemy will come from his household”.
His words, “I don’t know if it’s WAEC, if it’s West African Examination Council, but don’t bother about them. It shows you the desperation of human beings, and the Bible said that a man’s enemy will come from his household. These are the same people we sat together in EXCO. I can tell you, on a one-on-one, none of them can stand me. The least they can do is blackmail. Please disregard their cheap blackmail”.
“In 1981 when I went to school, Victory High School, Ikeja, Lagos, I was the Senior Prefect of that school. How can I forge a certificate of the school I attended? So please they have nothing to say. Let them look for something else and say. The Bible says “Many are the affliction of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. The ones they did before, the ones they are doing now and the ones they’ll do tomorrow, God will deliver us from them all,” Eno narrated.
He urged Akwa Ibom people not to be distracted but to remain resolute, focused and determined to enthrone a government of continuity, peace and prosperity come 2023 which he and the PDP symbolizes.
Akan Ekpe Okon, the plaintiff
MPM Reaction
The immediate past PDP National Legal Adviser, NLA, and National Chairman, Maintain Peace Movement, MPM, Hon Barr Emmanuel Enoidem, has described Mr Okon’s latest misadventure as bereft of and lacking in substance.
In a statement he personally signed, Barr Enoidem called on PDP and Pastor Umo Eno supporters to disregard the malicious and vicious smear campaign by persons who think they must be the Governor of Akwa Ibom State by hook and by crook.
The statement read in parts, “Our Attention has been drawn to Suit No. FHC/UY/CS/110/2022 between Akan Ekpe Okon V PDP & 2 Others pending at the Federal High Court, Uyo and the unhealthy insinuations in the public space especially through the social media.”
“We want to let our teeming supporters and the general public to be aware that: There is no substance in the claims of the Plaintiff as same is an utter vicious and malicious smear campaign of a desperado. Prior to the institution of the suit, the Plaintiff, in apparent attempt to stop the issuance of the Certificate of Return (COR) to Pastor Umo Bassey Eno, had prayed the NWC of the PDP through the National Chairman in a petition signed by his brother, Senator Anietie Okon to disqualify him. The Petition aforesaid was investigated by the Party and dismissed as bereft of and lacking in substance.”
He noted that Akan Okon’s desperation is nothing but a classic case of witch-hunt embarked upon by a man who scored three paltry stray votes at the PDP Governorship Congress where Pastor Umo Bassey Eno scored a total of Nine Hundred and Nine Three (993) votes.
“The Plaintiff, Mr. Akan Ekpe Okon, is displaying an extreme and classic case of desperation as it is challenging to see how he can sustain the suit in the face of impeccable credentials of Pastor Umo Bassey Eno. We will not say more on this matter as the subject matter is already sub judice,” he stated.
Straightnews learned that another court case institutedby Rt. Hon. Friday Iwok and 31 others, loyalists of Obong Bassey Albert, another aspirant, challenging the legality of the ad-hoc delegates list used for the primary is pending in the Federal High Court, Abuja.
