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The Supreme Court has dismissed three separate appeals brought before it by some governorship candidates seeking to nullify the election of Akwa Ibom State governor, Mr Umo Eno Bassey.
In the appeal, they want the apex court to nullify the governor’s election on account of alleged certificate forgery. Lead counsel to the respective parties withdrew their separate appeals following hints from the court’s panel that they lack merits.
The petition by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Akanimo Udofia, Young Progressives Party (YPP) and its gubernatorial candidate, Akpan Albert Bassey as well as that of New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) and its governorship candidate, John James Akpan Udoedehe were thrown out by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji upon their withdrawal.
Counsel in the matters had made spirited efforts to convince the court that Emo Eno Bassey and Bassey Eno Emo were not the same and as such that the governor allegedly forged his Secondary School Certificate.
Their arguments, especially forgery allegations, did not go down well with the Apex Court Justices who queried the lawyers on whether the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) gave evidence to establish the criminal allegations. Upon admission that WAEC did not testify in the matter, the lawyers opted and separately withdrew the appeal.
This prompted Justice Abba-Aji to dismiss them following no objections from lawyers to the various respondents. The Court did not award costs against any of the lawyers to the appellants having voluntarily withdrawn their cases on grounds of want of merit.
The Court of Appeal in Lagos had in November last year affirmed the election of Governor Eno of Akwa Ibom State in the governorship election held on March 18, 2023. The appellate court in its judgement dismissed three separate appeals, filed against the governor’s election.
While affirming the September 28, 2023 judgments of the election petition tribunal, the three-member panel of Justices headed by Festus Obande dismissed the appeal brought by the governorship candidate of the Young Progressives Party, Bassey Akpan, and his party against the Independent National Electoral Commission, Eno, and the Peoples Democratic Party.
Justice Obande also granted judgments in favour of the governor against the appeals of the governorship candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party, John Udoedehe, as well as Akanimo Udofia, of the All Progressives Congress.
The appellate court declared in the unanimous judgments that all three appeals lacked merit.
(leadership.ng)
