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 hints from the apex court’s panel of Justices that the appeals are bereft of substances and not meritorious judging from the decision of cases with similar facts.
The appeals which arosed from the petitions 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.
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 on 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 out and separately withdrew their appeals.
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.
The Court of Appeal in Lagos had in November last year affirmed the election of Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State in the governorship election held on March 18, 2023.
The appellate court in its judgment 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 passed judgments in favour of Governor Eno in the appeals filed by 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.