Appeal court affirms Umo Eno as Akwa Ibom PDP guber candidate

The court of appeal in Abuja has affirmed  Umo Eno as the authentic governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom.

In a judgment delivered on Tuesday, Hamma Barka, who led the appeal panel, sacked Michael Enyong, a member of the house of representatives who was previously named as the party’s governorship candidate.

Barka agreed with Eno’s legal team that judgment of a federal high court was delivered in error and that the court was misled by the plaintiff who concealed facts.

The appellate court ruled that the matter of statutory delegates who participated in the primary is an internal party affair and that the lower court should not have looked into it.

The appeal court further held that it is only the national working committee of a political party that has the power to conduct primaries for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for the general election.

Consequently, the court upheld Eno’s appeal and affirmed his candidacy.

The court also awarded N1 million as cost of litigation against Enyong.

A federal high court in Abuja had, on January 20, sacked Eno as the party’s governorship candidate.

Delivering judgment in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1295/2022, Fadima Aminu, the presiding judge, ordered the PDP to submit Michael Enyong’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as its candidate.