The appeal against Akwa Ibom State Governor Umo Eno’s election victory, filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Akanimo Udofia, was dismissed by the Supreme Court.
The highest court advised Hassan Liman, the attorney for the APC candidate, to rescind his appeal, citing factual and proper findings from lower courts.
Eno ran on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) platform, and the Court of Appeal in Lagos upheld his election.
Every appeal challenging the election of the governor was rejected by the appellate court.
The appeals court determined that there was insufficient evidence to support the claims of certificate forgery.
The appeal court further declared that a court of law had quashed the accusations of criminal convictions against the governor.
Hassan Liman, the appellants’ attorney, filed an appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision at the Supreme Court.
He insisted that the key point of contention was that the governor and his deputy governor had already been found guilty by several courts.
He contended that they were ineligible to challenge the polls under the constitution.
However, he acknowledged that the Magistrate Court in Abuja, rather than the Appeal Court, was allegedly the one to overturn their conviction.
The seven-member panel of the highest court, led by Justice Uwani Abaji-Aji, questioned the lawyer’s attendance at the hearing given that there was no appeal against the ruling that overturned the convictions.
“As a matter of fact, you are wasting our time.,” Justice Emmanuel Agim told Liman.
“You are a senior lawyer, do what is needful,” the apex court told the lawyer, saying without an appeal, the governor was no longer a convict.
Liman finally bowed to the judges by withdrawing the appeal.
“As a senior officer of this court, I want to thank the court, I accept the decision of this court.
“I humbly in the interest of justice, apply to withdraw this appeal,” Liman said.
“This appeal, having been withdrawn without any objection, is hereby dismissed,” the apex court held.
The apex court also dismissed the appeal by the Young Progressive Party(YPP) and others for being the same with that of the APC.