The Court of Appeal in Lagos on Friday struck out the appeals filed by Akwa Ibom’s governorship candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Senator Bassey Akpan and his counterparts Akanimo Udofia and Senator John Akpanudoedehe from the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), respectively.
The three governorship candidates and their parties had challenged the victory of Governor Umo Eno of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the 2023 gubernatorial election.
The court, in separate judgements, said the appeals were lacking in merit.
The appellants had prayed to the court to nullify the election over alleged certificate forgery, a case that has since been ruled on at the apex court in favour of Governor Eno.
The Appeal Court, however, ruled that since the appellants were not parties in the case, the judgement on the certificate matter was not binding on them.
It faulted the abuse of judicial process by the appellants in re-litigating a matter that was dispensed at the High Court, Appeal Court, and Supreme Court in favour of the second respondent, Pastor Umo Eno Bassey.
Ruling further on the appeal by the YPP governorship candidate, the appellate court also faulted the inability of the appellants to summon witnesses who were polling agents to prove their case of election irregularities.
The court was of the opinion that Bassey Albert and his party only depended on documentary evidence, which amounts to hearsay, to allege irregularities without making efforts to bring those who witnessed and took part in the elections at the polling units.
On the local government collation agents that the YPP candidate paraded before the court, the court held that “it is possible to say that the evidence given by Bassey Albert’s witnesses amounted to drama scripts meant to entertain the gallery and not serious statements that could influence the emergence of a governor.”
The court ruled that the burden of proof in the allegations that the name of the second respondent was not the same as the names on the 1981 and 1983 WAEC certificates was on the appellants and they failed to establish the proof.
The appeal court also dismissed the preliminary objection by Bassey Albert’s counsel, Tunde Falola, and ruled that the briefs filed by the respondents did not violate the Appeal Court’s practice direction.
