Supreme Court Dismisses APC, YPP, NNPP'S Petitions Against A’Ibom gov, Umo Eno.
The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed three separate appeals brought before it by some governorship candidates seeking nullification of election of Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno Bassey on account of alleged certificate forgery.
The petitions were those of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Young Progressive Party YPP and New Nigeria Peoples Party NNPP.
Lead counsel to the respective parties withdrew their separate appeals following the hints from the Court's panel of Justices that they have no merit.
The petition by APC and its governorship candidate, Akanimo Udofia, YPP and its gubernatorial candidate, Akpan Albert Bassey as well as that of NNPP and its governorship candidate, John James Akpan Udoedehe were thrown out by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji upon their withdrawal. I'm
Counsel in the matters had made spirited futile attempts to convince the Supreme 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 cost against any of the lawyers to the appellants having voluntarily withdrew their cases on ground of want of merit.
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.
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