By Uwem Udoudo
A Federal High Court in Uyo, Tuesday, adjourned the forgery case between former Commissioner, Akan Okon and the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) governorship candidate, Umo Eno, till September 12.
This followed the amendment of the motion earlier filed by lead counsel to the petitioner, Okey Amaechi, and a request for time not only to respond but to also proceed on medical checkup by the lead counsel to the defendant, Paul Usoro.
Mr. Amaechi and Mr. Usoro are both Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN)< a prestigious position in the country’s legal system.
At the resumed hearing of the forgery case with No: FHC/UY/CS/110/2022, in which Mr. Eno, the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are listed as defendants, Mr. Amaechi had raised a motion to amend the original summons filed before the court on August 29.
The amended writ had indicated that the PDP candidate committed perjury by lying on oath that he has no other date of birth except April 24, 1964.
The applicant insisted that Mr. Eno has two different birth certificates with one showing that he was born in Enugu and another showing that he was born in Lagos.
In one of the birth certificates deposed in the court, Mr. Eno is shown to have been born on April 24, 1964, in Enugu in Nigeria’s South-east while the second birth certificate showed he was born in Lagos on April 24, 1961.
The amended writ also indicated that the West African Examination Council’s (WAEC) certificate filed by the PDP candidate was obtained from a cloned website.
Mr. Okon also indicated that Mr. Eno had also supplied the University of Uyo (UNIUYO) and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) with a birth certificate showing 24th April 1961.
The trial judge, Agatha Okeke, had granted the request of the applicant to amend the charges and also withdraw the initial motion filed before the court.
While the defence counsel, Mr. Usoro, did not oppose the amendment to the charges, he, however, told the court that he would be addressing it in his preliminary objection.
Justice Okeke, however, argued that since he has not objected to the motion for amendment of the charges, his objections should be raised in the final address to the court.
GuardPost Nigeria recalls that Mr. Okon, a former PDP aspirant had dragged Mr. Eno, the winner of the party primary, the party and INEC to court over alleged forgery.
The former commissioner had accused the party’s candidate of forging his WAEC certificate and age declaration and prayed the court to hand over the party’s ticket to him who scored the next highest votes during the PDP primary.
