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, Umo Eno Bassey, on account of alleged certificate forgery.
The petitions were submitted by governorship candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Young Progressive Party YPP, and New Nigeria Peoples Party NNPP, in the March 18, 2023 gubernatorial election in Akwa Ibom.
Lead counsel to the respective parties withdrew their separate appeals following the hints from the Supreme court’s panel of Justices that they lack merit.
The petitions by APC and its governorship candidate, Akanimo Udofia, YPP and its standard bearer, Akpan Albert Bassey as well as that of NNPP and its candidate, John James Akpan Udoedehe, were consequently dismissed by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji upon their withdrawal.
Counsel in the matters had made futile attempts to convince the Supreme Court that ‘Emo Eno Bassey’ and ‘Bassey Eno Emo’ were not the same person and as such, that the governor forged his Secondary School Certificate.
Their arguments, especially forgery allegations, were not well received with the justices of the Supreme querying 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 out and separately withdrew the appeal.
This made Justice Abba-Aji to throw them out, following no objections from lawyers to the various respondents.
The Supreme Court did not award cost against any of the lawyers to the appellants, having voluntarily withdrawn their cases on ground of want of merit.
