The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos has dismissed the suit by Eseme Eyiboh of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for “lack in merit” and declared Okpolupm Etteh of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the representative of the Eket/ONNA/Esit Eket/Ibeno Federal Constituency of Akwa Ibom State.
The ruling was delivered on Thursday by the panel led by Justice Jummai Hannatu C. Sankey.
In the ruling, the presiding judge said, “We unanimously relied upon the thorough judgment of the Justice Kudirat Jose-led Tribunal, which had affirmed Hon. Etteh, winner of the House of Representatives election of February 25, 2023 for Eket/ONNA/Esit Eket/Ibeno Federal Constituency, as declared by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), having scored 33,001 votes against his opponent Eyiboh (16,909 votes)”.
The court ordered Eyiboh, who it said relied on mere speculations to allege that Etteh’s certificates were forged, to pay the sum of N300,000 to each of the respondents.
Recall that Eyiboh, in his petition, had alleged that Etteh, the candidate of the PDP, was not qualified to stand election due to certificate forgery and therefore, urged the Tribunal to nullify his eligibility and declare him (Eyiboh) winner of the election.