Akwa Ibom state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that pastor Umo Eno remains the authentic flag bearer of the party on the March 11, 2023 governorship election in the state.
The party urged the people and residents of the state to ignore false speculation making rounds in the state that the member representing Uyo federal constituency Hon Mike Enyong has replaced pastor Umo Eno in the forthcoming election.
They maintained that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) still recognized pastor Umo Eno as the governorship candidate of the party in the election.
Interacting with newsmen in Uyo, the former Attorney General and Head of the Legal Team for pastor Umo Eno, Uwemedimo Nwoko (SAN) said Mike Enyong who claimed to be the PDP gubernatorial candidate through manipulated court judgement is wanted by the Nigeria Police after he had evaded several invitations by security agents for forgery, fraud and impersonation.
Nwoko asked the lawmaker to surrender himself to the police at the nearest police station for arrest and prosecution.
Nwoko, a renowned constitutional lawyer disclosed that the lawmaker also known as “Babantan” as Michael Enyong had been declared wanted by the Police for evading summons bordering on alleged fraudulent activities on his head.
He urged members of the public to ignore what he called “series of misinformation” peddled on the social media space by purveyors of fake news, Nwoko said 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.
“There is a pending motion before a Federal High Court in Abuja by Pastor Eno and at the Appeal Court by PDP, for a stay of execution on the controversial court judgement obtained by the said Enyong, hence the decision of the federal high court cannot be effected until the pending motions are dispensed.
“I personally filed a case to the Police but refused to show up. Mike Enyong should submit himself to the nearest Police station. He should respond to questions bordering on fraudulent actions.
“He 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”.
“As of yesterday, I took time to access the 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.
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“Mike Enyong claims that he obtained a judgement from the Federal High Court Abuja and that the judgement now makes him a candidate of the PDP. Let me state here that the judgement which was obtained by fraud and which he has carefully refused to bring to the public, does not in any way tamper with the candidacy of Umo Bassey Eno”.
Nwoko explained that until now, Michael Enyong, who he said has been hiding, is yet to present the judgement he obtained from the court to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“I was at INEC headquarters on Friday, they have not received any letter from him. He has not written to INEC or even attempted to present that judgement or ask INEC to substitute his name with Umo Eno’s”.
The former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice wondered why a public officer of Enyong’s status would condescend to the extent of forging 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 letter headed paper of the PDP and presented same before the court, where he obtained a fraudulent judgment.
He emphasized that such criminal act which runs foul of the law cannot be swept under the carpet.
Nwoko alleged that Mike Enyong adopted mischievous practices to obtain the fraudulent judgement.
He described the case as a ” nullity abinitio” adding that the Nigerian constitution in Section 285 and sub-Section 9 provides a timeline of 14 days for the filing of any suit pertaining to pre-election matters of which the Plaintiff clearly defaulted.
“It is on record that the PDP gubernatorial primaries took place on the 25th of May 2022 and Mr Enyong filed the case on 1st August of the same year, 69 days after the event took place.”
He said the police have been alerted on alleged multiple forgeries and the lawmaker will be arrested and prosecuted.
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