The legal team of Umo Eno, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the March 11, 2023 elections in Akwa Ibom State has insisted that Micheal Enyong is not the governorship candidate of the party as speculated.
Enyong, currently a House of Representative member for Uyo Federal Constituency, obtained a judgement at the Federal High Court in Abuja declaring him the governorship candidate of PDP in the state.
Prior to the judgement, Enyong who never participated in the primary conducted by his party allegedly held a parallel primary at his residence where he reportedly polled 2,448 out of the 2,776 total accredited votes.
In a press briefing by the former Attorney General of the state, Uwemedimo Nwoko, SAN, who is the legal team lead of Umo Eno Campaign Council, he affirmed that Eno remained the candidate of the party as there is a pending application for stay of execution at both the Appeal Court and the High Court filed by PDP and it’s candidate, Eno, respectively.
Nwoko who addressed journalists in Uyo added that based on three grounds―of fraud, lack of due service to parties listed and lack of jurisdiction―”the purported judgement obtained by Mike Enyong was not tenable anywhere.”
He further claimed that Enyong reportedly forged the signatures of the National Chairman of the PDP, National Organizing Secretary of the PDP and other officials, and even went as far as forging the official letterhead paper of the PDP and presented same before the court, “where he obtained the fraudulent judgment.”
Nwoko who said he has conducted his investigations challenged Enyong to present the said judgement to INEC(which he is yet to do) or to the public for scrutiny even as he (Nwoko) said he had visited INEC website and found that Umo Eno’s name is still retained there as the PDP candidate.
His words: “He (Enyong) has not gotten the courage to present his fraudulently obtained judgement to INEC up till now. Even if he approaches INEC, it will not be executed. PDP through its representative, Paul Usoro, SAN, had filed a stay of execution. There is a stay-of-execution motion at the Court of Appeal. Mike Enyong is not and cannot be the candidate of the PDP in Akwa Ibom State, because the purported judgement he has is not valid. The judgement he is holding was obtained by fraud.”
He continued: “As [of] yesterday, I took time to access INEC website and I visited their office in Abuja. This document which I printed out in coloured form, was downloaded from INEC website yesterday. At any point in time, you can verify and confirm that Pastor Umo Eno is the PDP candidate in Akwa Ibom State.”
The lawyer had stated that up until now, Michael Enyong, who he said has been hiding, is yet to present a copy of the judgement he obtained from the court to INEC for his name to be substituted with that of Umo Eno.
He disclosed that he has alerted the Nigerian Police to investigate and prosecute Enyong and wondered why a public officer of Enyong’s standing would condescend to the extent of forging signatures of other officers to deceive the court.
“The Nigeria Police have been alerted on these alleged multiple forgeries and fraud and Mr Enyong is being wanted for investigations by the Police,” he said.
Meanwhile, efforts to speak with Mike Enyong for his reactions were not successful his mobile line was switched-off at the time of filing this report.
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