A pro-All Progressives Congress group in Akwa Ibom State, Defenders of Akwa Ibom APC, has drawn the attention of the national leadership of the party to reports on the alleged forgery committed by officials of the newly inaugurated state leadership of the party in Akwa Ibom State.

The group in a statement issued on Tuesday drew reference to a story published in Premium Times in which the chairman and secretary of the Sheriff Banki and Yakubu Sule respectively separately deposed that their signatures were forged to get the judgment that brought Stephen Ntukekpo to office as state chairman.

It would be recalled that the Banki led congress committee had earlier declared Mr Austin Ekanem as the winner of the congress that was conducted last year.

Ntukekpo had filed a court action insisting that he was the person declared as winner by the congress committee.

Ntukekpo is backed by the minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio.

However, Ekanem is backed by several other state leaders of the party including Senator John Akpanudoedehe, former minister of petroleum, Chief Donald Etiebet, former APC governorship candidates Nsima Ekere (2019), Umana Umana (2015), among others.

Drawing the attention of the party to the development, the group in a statement issued by its coordinator, Ibok Essein warned that the party had laid the foundation for illegality in the continued recognition of Ntukekpo.

“We are worried by this development that the person foisted on us as chairman has been outed as having come to office through the wrong channel. The claim by the party’s agents to conduct the congress that their signatures were forged is enough damning evidence for the party to act to correct this abnormality.

“We say that the reign of illegality and wickedness will not lead the party anywhere and that the minority cannot afford to make progress along this path,” the group warned.

Banki had alerted the APC of the forgery of his signature through a letter he sent to the then national chairman, Mr Buni, on January 11.

The letter which was copied to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the Director General of the State Security Service, and the chairman of INEC.

“As you may recall, you appointed me as the Chairman of the APC Congress Committee to Akwa Ibom State for the Ward, LGA, and State’s Congresses, and I acquitted myself creditably,”Bank I said to Buni in the letter.

“I submitted the results and the reports accordingly, but to my utter dismay, my attention was drawn to a suit filed in the Federal High Court, Abuja, by one Stephen Leo Ntukekpo who swore to an affidavit and attached fake results sheets where my signature was forged and he declared himself the State Chairman-elect for Akwa Ibom State,” Banki said in the letter.

The results sheet, which Banki said was fake and his signature forged, contained names of other “winners” drawn entirely from Mr Ntukekpo’s faction.

Mr Banki said in the letter that Ntukekpo’s action was beyond politics and that the APC should treat it as a “serious criminal offence”.

He also said that Mr Ntukekpo’s action could throw the APC into chaos in Akwa Ibom.

Mr Banki, in a live Facebook interview on January 25, reiterated the allegation of forgery against Mr Ntukekpo.

He said the state congress in Akwa Ibom was one of the best conducted by the APC, and that the exercise was commended by INEC and security agencies which monitored it.

Mr Ntukekpo did not participate in the congress, he said.

INEC’s position

According to PREMIUM TIMES, documents obtained at the INEC headquarters in Uyo , the Akwa Ibom State capital corroborated Mr Banki’s claims that Ntukekpo forged his signature.

Ten persons contested for the office of the state chairman of the APC in Akwa Ibom, while 1,794 delegates voted in the congress.

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Mr Ekanem had the largest number of votes cast, 1, 278, according to the INEC document, followed by Otu Toyo, with 190 votes.

Another candidate, Udeme Ekot, had 50 votes.

Mr Ntukekpo had six votes, even when he did not participate in the party congress.

INEC said in its report that the APC state congress, apart from being peaceful, was conducted according to the law.

Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio. What really happened?

The APC in Akwa Ibom was already divided between the Akpanudoedehe and Akpabio factions before the party state congress.

Akpanudoedehe, a former senator, wants to be the APC candidate for the 2023 Akwa Ibom governorship election, an ambition that Mr Akpabio is kicking against.

While Banki-led team was conducting the APC state congress in Uyo, the APC faction loyal to Akpabio – and led by Ntukekpo – was having a parallel exercise somewhere in the city.

INEC, in line with its mandate, monitored the congress conducted by Mr Banki and his team, thereby rendering the parallel exercise legally, a nullity.

Mr Akpabio had shown up at the venue of the congress conducted by Mr Banki and his team and, at his request, he was given a few minutes to address the gathering.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s adviser on Niger Delta Affairs, Ita Enang; the Managing Director, Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority, Umana Umana; a former minister of petroleum, Don Etiebet, and a former managing director, Niger Delta Development Commission, Bassey Dan-Abia were among the APC chieftains who participated in the congress conducted by Banki.

Legal battle

Mr Ekanem, sacked via a court order 10 days after he was sworn in, later got a reprieve from the Court of Appeal, Abuja, which ordered parties in the case to maintain the status quo.

The appeal was filed by Akpanudoedehe.

The Court of Appeal adjourned the case to May 17 for hearing on the motion for a stay of execution of the Federal High Court ruling.

However, 72 hours after, the new National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Adamu, hurriedly swore-in Mr Ntukekpo as the Akwa Ibom APC chairman, in defiance of the order of the Court of Appeal.

The APC, also in an attempt to scuttle the case at the Court of Appeal, asked its lawyer, Solomon Umoh, SAN, to withdraw from the case. But the lawyer told the party that he was representing Mr Akpanudoedehe in the case, and not the APC.

“We are of the firm view that having been sued as a natural person at the trial court, he (Akpanudoedehe) can constitutionally exercise a right of appeal through any counsel of his choice against a judgement which he was a party,” Mr Umoh wrote in a response to a letter from the APC national legal adviser.

Akpanudoedehe personally wrote a letter to the APC national chairman, advising the party to stop putting pressure on his legal team to withdraw from the case at the Court of Appeal.

When contacted for the party’s reaction, the APC national spokesperson, Felix Morka, asked our reporter to send questions via a text message. He did not, however, respond to the text message sent to his phone line.

Other intrigues

Meanwhile, the former petroleum minister, Mr Etiebet was at the APC national secretariat, a few days ago, to explain to the national chairman, Mr Adamu, the forgery allegation against Mr Ntukekpo and why he (Ntukekpo) cannot lead the party in Akwa Ibom.

The minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr Akpabio was reportedly informed by a party official about Mr Etiebet’s presence at the secretariat, It was learnt.

The minister rushed to the secretariat, and reportedly had an altercation with Mr Etiebet in the chairman’s office.

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Etiebet, having been distracted by the minister, was unable to make a presentation to Mr Adamu. He had to reschedule the appointment.

Immediately they stepped out of Mr Adamu’s office, Akpabio addressed reporters, with Etiebet standing beside him.

Akpabio said Adamu is “leading a law-abiding party”, for swearing-in Mr Ntukekpo.

Etiebet refused to comment on the incident when contacted him on Saturday.

But he said Akpabio “caused the party in Abuja” to swear-in Ntukekpo when he (Ntukekpo) did not participate in the APC state congress, let alone elected as chairman.

He said the swearing in of Ntukekpo is an “illegality” that is unacceptable to him and other APC leaders in Akwa Ibom.

Akpabio did not respond to calls and text messages seeking his comment on the matter.

His spokesperson, Jackson Udom, declined to comment on the matter, saying it was not within his scope of work to respond to party issues.

Mr Ntukekpo could not be reached for comment, as calls to his known telephone line were not going through.

‘I’m alive, nobody can lie against me.’

Meanwhile, the secretary of the congress organising committee, Yakubu Sule’s signature, was also forged.

Sule said he would present his facts in the court whenever he makes an appearance.

Banki had said on Thursday that he would not allow Ntukekpo to claim victory against Mr Ekanem, in an exercise he conducted.

“You can only lie against a dead person, you can’t lie against a living person. I’m alive and nobody can lie against me.

“The person that forged my signature will be arrested and prosecuted,” he said.

The Star