Certificate forgery: Supreme Court dismisses APC, YPP, NNPP petitions against A’Ibom Gov

On Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected three separate appeals brought before it by gubernatorial candidates seeking to invalidate the election of Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno Bassey, based on allegations of certificate forgery. The petitions were submitted by candidates from 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.

The lead counsel for the respective parties decided to withdraw their individual appeals after indications from the Supreme Court’s panel of Justices that the appeals lacked merit. The petitions by the APC and its candidate Akanimo Udofia, YPP and its flagbearer Akpan Albert Bassey, as well as NNPP and its candidate John James Akpan Udoedehe, were subsequently dismissed by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji upon their withdrawal.

Despite the lawyers’ attempts to argue that ‘Emo Eno Bassey’ and ‘Bassey Eno Emo’ were not the same person, asserting that the governor forged his Secondary School Certificate, the Supreme Court Justices were unconvinced. The apex court questioned the lawyers on whether the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) provided evidence to support the forgery allegations. Since it was admitted that WAEC did not testify in the matter, the lawyers chose to withdraw their appeals separately.

In response to the voluntary withdrawal on the grounds of lack of merit, Justice Abba-Aji dismissed the appeals without objections from the respondents’ lawyers. The Supreme Court did not impose any costs on the lawyers representing the appellants.

In November of the previous year, the Court of Appeal in Lagos had affirmed the election of Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State in the March 18, 2023 governorship election. The appellate court dismissed three separate appeals filed against the governor’s election, affirming the judgments of the election petition tribunal from September 28, 2023. The unanimous judgments declared that all three appeals lacked merit.