A federal high Court sitting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, has adjourned for hearing the forgery suit against the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Pastor Umo Eno to Wednesday, August 31, 2023.
It could be recalled that Akan Okon, one of the governorship aspirants of the party, had dragged the party Eno as well as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to court over alleged certificate forgery.
In suit no FHC/UY/CS/110/2022, Okon accused Pastor Eno of forging his WAEC certificate and age declaration and prayed the court to hand over the party ticket to him as the next highest scorer of votes in the primaries.
But, when the matter came up for hearing, Okon sought the leave of the court to amend his originating processes in the suit, including his writ of summons, statement of claims, written statement on oath, list of documents and list of witnesses.
Mr Okon also brought a new lawyer, Okey Amaechi, SAN to lead in the case ahead of Uche Awa, SAN who had been in the saddle before now.
Counsel to the Plaintiff, Okey Amaechi, SAN, who filed the motion, also pleaded with the court to grant him leave to amend his earlier reply to the 1st and 2nd Defendants’ Statement of Defence and all accompanying processes.
Reacting, counsel to the 1st and 2nd Respondents, Paul Usoro, SAN reasoned that having just been served with the fresh amended processes, he would study them before responding.
Counsel to the defendants, Uwemedimo Nwoko, SAN, told journalists after the proceedings that they wanted to take time to study the new processes introduced by the plaintiff and that they have no problem with the amendments.
Recall that during its last sitting, the court had dismissed an application by another governorship aspirant in the May 25, 2022 PDP primaries, Mr Aniekan Akan Etim, describing it as lacking in merit.
Justice Agatha Okeke in her ruling had yielded to the submissions of the plaintiffs and the 1st and 2nd defendants to dismiss the application by Mr Etim.
Mr Etim Akan had appeared before it with another motion for stay of proceedings, pending the outcome of his appeal at the appellate court challenging the lower court’s refusal to join him in the case as a defendant.
The court, however, dismissed it, saying there is no pending appeal at the Court of Appeal by the applicant.
