By Eld. Emmanuel Udosen

Recall that shortly after the PDP primaries in Akwa Ibom State, one of the failed aspirants, Mr. Akan Okon, told his supporters that he has uncovered a certificate forgery case by the successful aspirant,and candidate of the PDP in the state. Before his think tank committee, if any, could settle down to verify the facts, he had instituted an action in court and launched a media attack on the person of Pst. Umo Eno.

So many unimaginable and unprintable invectives were poured on the character of the candidate in the social media while judgments were passed against him in the same media to the extent that some gullible and vulnerable members of the public concluded that the party had lost its chance of filing candidates in the election.

Investigation reveals that Mr. Akan Okon tends to pay more attention and reposes more confidence in this plaza jurists than he does to the pending case in the Federal High Court, Uyo. He is alleged to have voted good sums of money which he couldn't spend to do a pre-primary consultations on the Uyo plaza jurists before realizing that the Evidence Act 2011 places a high burden of proof of his allegations on him; and that the defendants may only be called upon to make their defence after he has discharged that burden.

When it finally dawned on Akan Okon that he had set his hands to the ploughing, and a dangerous one for that, he got up and started engaging quacks to scavenge for tissues of evidence in support of his claims.

His first exploration led him to a bunch of fraudsters in Lagos, where he compromised some hungry Nigerians to clone a letterhead and do a letter purporting to be issued by one Mr. T. A. Ademola wherein a disclaimer over Umo Eno's WAEC Certificates were made.
His media urchins in both the Mail Newspaper and Sahara Reporters Newspapers carried the vibes about how Pst. Umo Eno has already been disqualified and the PDP scouting for a replacement. But when the WAEC Headquarters rose to the challenge and denied having any staff by such name, Okon's ploy fizzled out but not without casualties both at WAEC branch office and the Mail newspapers.

Next ploy was to engage a quack forensic expert in the person of one "Prof." Jideoni Charles who in turn approached a popular and real forensic expert, Prof. Michael Nwokolo, (trust Nigeria Police) to underwrite his report by endorsing same without verifying the facts. Reports have it that the fake forensic expert has had previous dealings with the real expert wherein he touts for clients for the Retired Superintendent of Police. Further reports indicate that they first met themselves when the retired officer was still in service and was investigating a crime which involved the fake "Prof." Charles, but which somehow, he maneuvered the process and got him out of the hook.

The acclaimed forensic report sponsored and sought to be relied upon by Akan Okon sparked media investigations which in turn opened a Can of Worms against the duo. Since then, both have avoided the camera and have also expressed unwillingness to face cross examination in court, much like the APC/Tinubu's hired Bishops, (I guess you still remember).

In further demonstration of his desperation and ignoramus, Akan Okon is said to have hired another specialist; this time a signature/handwriting analyst named *Mr. Reginald Udunze* whom he says is able to analyze the signatures on Pst. Umo Eno's certificates and "confirmed" them to be forged. His plans is to file in this witness as an expert opinion to counter any evidence from the WAEC Registrar to the effect that they issued the certificates.
Although this is left for the court to decide the weight to attach to the various evidences, I stand to wonder how any slight variation in signature can invalidate a document duly issued and confirmed by an authorized institution.

I have a signature (I guess you too) and I can jolly tell you that signing same signature ten times, it can never remain the same in virtually all ramifications without the slightest variations. Compare when someone has to sign hundreds and thousands of documents at different times, and a "signature/handwriting expert" claims he has spotted some differences. Not a big deal! I don't need to be an expert to spot same, even in my signatures. What an evidence!

As if that wasn't enough troubles for the Akan Okon, he now sought to amend his claim to enable him bring in new "facts" from his recent discoveries. Guess what the new discoveries are?

"That the authority of the University of Uyo has released documents showing that Pst. Umo Eno gave his date of birth as 24/4/1961 instead of 24/4/1964". This is against an earlier Ibom Plaza jury's verdict that Pst. Umo Eno did not attend any school or graduate from the University of Uyo at all. Pending completion of our findings, it is possible that some chaps have smuggled out documents and doctored same to suit Akan Okon's purpose. The expectation and earnest prayer of the desperate claimant is that the University strike should continue up to 12/9/2022 when the case is adjourned so that he can ask for further adjournment on ground of his witness not being at work.

Meanwhile, plans are also rift to tender a medical report to excuse the quack Prof. Charles from attending court on health grounds.

Recall that the Obafemi Awolowo University had disowned Prof. Jideoni Charles as not being a product or a staff of the institution when he was involved in a case of Obtaining Money by False Pretence in 2019. The fake prof was paraded by the EFCC and is currently standing trial before Justice Nicholas Oweibo in the Federal High court of Lagos state. His claimed professorship is also under serious scrutiny as he has laid claim to many other specialties including being a Witch Doctor. Check out his Facebook profile for details of his claims:

“Doctrinal Head, The Universal Philosophers' New-World, Author, 'The Universal Natural Laws', and Originator & CEO, JC WEALTHY GENERATION CONCEPTS, Consultant Numerologist, Graphoanalyst and Palm Reader expert, Originator, Onigraffiks writting (sic) system”, etc.

It is reasonably suspected that a number of the Ibom Plaza Jurists also possess equivalent qualifications; now is the time to identify their syndicates in the ranks of the University of Uyo staff.

Mmmm