The group made the allegation in an interview with journalists in Uyo on Wednesday, noting that it was very sad to see how the state governor was recklessly spending public funds just to ensure that he installs his stooge as the next governor.
A group in Akwa Ibom State, Michael Enyong Support Vanguard (MESUV), has accused Governor Udom Emmanuel of spending almost a billion naira to purchase an Appeal Court judgment for the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate, Pastor Umo Eno.
The group made the allegation in an interview with journalists in Uyo on Wednesday, noting that it was very sad to see how the state governor was recklessly spending public funds just to ensure that he installs his stooge as the next governor.
The group had prior to the judgment date raised the alarm that the state government was planning to influence the judgment of the Appeal Court on the legal battle between Mr Enyong and the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Umo Eno.
The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Friday, January 20, sacked Mr Eno as the governorship candidate of PDP and ordered the PDP to submit Mr Enyong's name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as its candidate.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS1295/2022 filed in August 2022, Mr Enyong had submitted that he won the PDP governorship primary election conducted on May 25, 2022. Delivering the judgment, Justice Fadima Aminu stated that Enyong was able to prove his case beyond a reasonable doubt.
MESUV through its coordinator, Ukara Sampson, alleged that the state government through its lawyers ferried the money which was in dollars from the Government House in Uyo on Monday night to Abuja to settle justices.
He further revealed that members of Umo Eno and PDP's campaign team, before judgment was delivered, bragged that the state government had been “buying” all the court judgments in favour of Umo Eno and would do the same with all the remaining judgements till all the cases were exhausted.
He noted that some government officials were heard saying that “every court in Nigeria has a price tag”.
“It is a very sad time in the history of our state that at a time when we are witnessing so much suffering and hardship, the government is spending our resources in buying court judgments and there are people bragging about it.
“It is even difficult to understand why a government that was elected by the people and claims to be serving the people, is wasting the resources of the state in courts in an attempt to subvert the will of the people,” Mr Sampson said.
The leader of the group revealed that already government proxies are boasting that money for Supreme Court Justices has been sent to their middleman in order to further truncate Michael Enyong’s case at the highest court.
“Government agents are boasting that nobody can challenge Governor Udom Emmanuel as he has all the money in the world to frustrate and jail anybody challenging his move to put a successor.
“We know that this man called Udom Emmanuel has for the past years put Akwa Ibom people in severe hunger. I am calling on the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) and ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission) to monitor Judges and justices handling cases that border on Akwa Ibom State as the government is hell-bent to waste the common patrimony of the state for vainglory,” he said.
He called on the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola to take urgent measures to ensure that politicians are unable to influence court judgments, in order to protect the integrity of the judiciary.