The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, dismissed a petition filed by the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate in the state, Akanimo Udofia, challenging the election of Pastor Umo Eno of the Peoples Democratic Party as the winner of the March 18,2023 elections.
Udofia requested the disqualification of Pastor Eno’s election on the basis that he presented fraudulent documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and did not receive the most legal votes in the March 18, 2023 Governorship elections.
Udofia further accused the second respondent of being convicted by an Abuja Magistrate Court and hence ineligible to run in elections.
However, in its unanimous judgement in favor of Governor Umo Eno, the 2nd Respondent, the Tribunal concluded that the petitioners’ allegations of major disobedience with electoral law in the conduct of the elections were insufficiently proven.
The panel, led by Justice Adekunle Adeleye, also found that the magistrate court’s earlier conviction of Pastor Umo Eno was voided in its verdict, and that once a judgment is nullified, it ceases to exist.
“It is not the duty of the tribunal to determine if the decision of the magistrate court to upturn its own judgment was justified. That falls under the jurisdiction of the Abuja High Court.”
Concerning the 2nd Respondent’s qualifications, the Tribunal argued that the Supreme Court had already determined that Pastor Eno was the genuine owner of the WAEC certificates he provided to INEC.
The lead judgment, read by Justice Kadi Usman Sikudu, also concluded that the petitioners, who claimed that Pastor Eno was not the legitimate owner of the 1981 WAEC certificate he presented to the 1st Respondent, INEC, failed to produce any other person as the legitimate owner of the said 1981 WAEC certificate.
The evidence presented by the petitioner’s subpoenaed witness, an acclaimed Interpol officer who came to tender a report on the 2nd respondent’s WAEC scores, was also thrown out by the judge.
On the petitioner’s allegation that the PDP used public office holders, such as one Uwem Ekanem, as collation agents in the Ikot Abasi local government area, the tribunal ruled that Uwem Ekanem’s membership on the board of Ibom Power Company could not be classified as political office and that a party agent’s membership on a company’s board was not enough to disqualify a candidate.
The Tribunal concluded that Akanimo Udofia’s challenge lacked merit since he was unable to identify one polling location in which the electoral law was not followed in the March 18 Governorship elections.
The tribunal also dismissed the issue of Mr. Udofia’s case, which challenged the eligibility of Senator Bassey Albert, who finished second in the race.
The panel insisted that the convicted YPP candidate was still appealing his conviction at the time of the elections, making him eligible to run.
The tribunal also rejected the APC’s claims that Senator Albert was unqualified to run for office in the YPP since he had previously run for the same position in the PDP.
It decided that because the petitioner was not a member of the YPP, he had no standing to dispute who that party fielded and how he became their candidate.
The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Uyo had previously dismissed the petitions of NNPP Governorship candidate Senator John James Akpan Udoedehe and ANC candidate Ezekiel Nyaetok as lacking in substance.