By Darlington UDOBONG
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Essien Udim State Constituency in the just concluded State House of Assembly election in Akwa Ibom State, Barrister Esse Umoh, has challenged the suspended member for Essien Udim and candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Mr. Nse Ntuen, to produce his acclaimed “University of Calabar Certificate’ or be ready to face the law and rot in jail.
Barrister Umoh, who gave the position in Uyo recently during a chat with Ibom Telegraph, said “Nse Effiong Ntuen was not qualified to contest that election with me reasons being that he has committed a criminal offense. He should be disqualified because he used fake documents. Anybody that lies under oath is liable of plagiary. The certificate Nse Effiong Ntuen used from the University of Calabar, which he claimed he had a 2.1 (Second Class Upper) in Social Sciences, was not issued from that University. I am challenging him to challenge me in any Court of law that his result was issued from the University of Calabar. Yes, he went to the University of Calabar and had a 2.2 (Second Class Lower) and that result is still pending at the University of Calabar as we speak. There is no University in the world that can issue its student with two certificates. If he is saying that it was a mistake, let the Registrar of the University of Calabar write to me that the result that Nse Effiong Ntuen was given a 2.1 was a mistake, and that Senate of the school approved the result by mistake.”
“He used that fake result in 2014 and used it again in 2019. It is intentional. If you claimed that you finished school in 2013 and that there was a mistake on your result, it behooves on you to write to have written to the University for correction and the span of 2014 to 2019 is a long time for the University of Calabar to have written to Nse Effiong Ntuen or to have replied to his application for correction of result. People correct results, let Nse Effiong Ntuen show me the application he made as at 2014 when he received his statement of result. A good student knows his GPA even before his final examinations. From the final result of Nse Effiong Ntuen, he had a 3.04 GPA. It is not enough to tell people that the University of Calabar made a mistake on your result, show us the evidence that the University of Calabar made a mistake on your result,” he explained.
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Explaining further, Barrister Umoh said Mr. Ntuen was not competent and qualified to represent the people of the area in all ramifications, according to him, “Nse Effiong Ntuen does not have what it takes to go to the State House of Assembly for a second time. He is a man full of violence. He has exhibited this negative virtue all his live and the 2019 House of Assembly election was not an exception. But unfortunately the law has caught up with him and his cohorts. The law says anyone who forcefully engages any staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to collate or declare himself/herself as the winner will not be recognized by the law, because the process is not recognized by the electoral law. Nse Effiong Ntuen felt he could use the army, police, headed by SP Idorenyin Akpabio, and civil defense to hijack the process and declared himself winner to a seat he has remained a failure for four years.”
“As a candidate, I was not allowed access to the collation centre. I was even threatened with a gun by a soldier. Nse Effiong Ntuen and his cohorts went to the Collation Centre with Armoured Personnel Carrier. I narrowly escape death at the collation centre because I because I became a target of the Warsaw war. The PDP Chapter Chairman of the Essien Udim mistakenly went into the collation centre and was beaten to pulp. He was later abandoned at the Divisional Police Station when they thought he was dead, even the DPO ran away thinking the man was dead. I called the DPO for over two hours to come and release the man for us to take him to the hospital and he refused. But I thank God, we are fortunate to have INEC that is unbiased. They have reported that the results of the elections for Essien Udim State Constituency were marred with irregularities and they have also said that they cannot issue Certificate of Return. It is a national issue. The same thing is applicable to Governor Rochas Okorocha and two others,” Barrister Umoh stressed.
“As a person, a lawyer, I know the law. I know that every legal process has a time frame, especially that of the electoral process. Immediately after the conduct of elections, any issue arising from the electoral process is addressed at the Election Tribunal and it is only the Election Tribunal that has such power. Therefore, I know that Nse Effiong Ntuen forced the Collation Officer to collate and announce Essien Udim results in his favour. I know the Election Tribunal will address the abnormality.”
He called on “the Election Tribunal to investigate whether Nse Effiong Ntuen had the locus to contest election with me on the grounds that he used a forged certificate from the University of Calabar to contest the election.”
Barrister Umoh also hinted that he has submitted his petition at the Election Tribunal, saying “My prayers at the Election Tribunal are as follows: Firstly, I am the one that won the elections at the Units. And the law says the process should be announced at the Units. All the results we have show that I won. So, let the Election Tribunal declare me the winner of the election that was held on the 9th of March 2019. Secondly, Nse Effiong Ntuen should be disqualified because he used fake documents.”
