A socio-political group, Akwa Ibom Liberation Movement based in Uyo, has lashed at Senator Godswill Akpabio for allegedly basing his burden of proof on hearsay evidence at the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
In a release signed by the acting Secretary of the group, Solomon Abasiekong Esq, the group said all witnesses presented by Akpabio at the tribunal – himself inclusive – have admitted to basing their depositions primarily on hearsays not what they witnessed themselves.
“They conveniently relied on secondary sources of information to testify about the conduct of elections in polling units yet they insist the imaginary results which they can not prove favoured Akpabio.”
The group revealed that from cross examination of Akpabio’s witnesses in court, over 85% of those Akpabio presented as party agents were actually impostors, their names are not on the list of INEC accredited party agents.
He noted that one of them, Cletus Udo Akpan, admitted on oath that he was neither an accredited voter nor a witness to events of that fateful election.
“During cross examined, Sen. Akpabio fell foul to the false information he gave on oath to a Federal High Court in Abuja, in his bid to secure an order to stop the presentation of certificate of return to Senator Chris Ekpenyong.
“In that affidavit, Akpabio claimed that he had 65,000 votes, which is clearly above the authentic 61,329 on INEC result sheet, which Akpabio now claims are his.
“The salient questions begging answers are: Is lying on oath no longer a punishable offence in Nigerian law? Where did Akpabio get that bogus figure he swore an affidavit for? Shouldn’t he be asked how he arrived at that bogus figure, when he won in only two LGAs out of 10?.”
