ESSIEN UDIM RE-RUN: HOW BARR. PATRICK UMOH DISGRACED NSE NTUEN AND APC AT THE FEDERAL HIGH COURT YESTERDAY

The courtroom was filled to capacity. The venue was the Federal High Court, Udo Udoma Avenue, Uyo.

Serious cases were listed for hearing but in the midst of the serious cases was a strange ex parte application for an order of injunction to restrain INEC from conducting Saturday's re-run election.

The application was filed on behlaf of Nse Ntuen and the APC by Barr (Dr.) Patrick Umoh of Godswill Akpabio Law House. It was a strange and funny application which threw lawyers into laughter.

The good news is that the application was refused by the Court for lacking in substance.

It is however a surprise to many that Parick Umoh who introduced himself to the court as "Dr. Patrick Umoh" does not know the extant position of the Electoral Act which provides that no injunction shall lie against an election in Nigeria.

Where did Patrick Umoh do his law practice training (also known as tutelage)? How conversant is he with the real practice of law?

It would be recalled that Patrick Umoh has made several blunders in court in recent time in respect of the same Essien Udim State Constituency matter.

At the Tribunal he applied that Esse Umoh's petition should be struck out for being incompetent but the Tribunal dismissed his application and proceeded with the hearing of the petition. He also argued that Esse Umoh did not file his pre hearing application on time but the argument was adjudged by the Tribunal as baseless and also dismissed.

At the Court of Appeal in Calabar, he argued in the brief he filed for Nse Ntuen that Esse Umoh's appeal was academic and without legal substance. The Court of Appeal in its judgment dismissed his argument and upheld the appeal, the outcome of which is the re-run that will take place in Essien Udim on Saturday.

Recall further that it was this same Patrick umoh who wrote the petition for Chief Godswill Akpabio against Utitofon Morgan to the police. That petition got Utitofon, then an expectant father arrested, a situation that almost traumatized Utitofon’s wife.

Patrick continually holds out himself as an enemy of young people, especially the intelligent ones; a clog in the wheel of Democratic progress and a very selfish fellow.