as Uniuyo Staff Earlier Declared Non-existent Appears as Witness at Tribunal

The legal team of Pastor Umo Eno was rattled at the Governorship Petition Tribunal for over one hour following the appearance of a subpoenaed witness, a staff of the University of Uyo, who had earlier been declared non-existence by the institution.

Mr. Daniel Edet Akpan, who was subpoenaed by the court, is the Uniuyo staff who endorsed the Certified True Copies (CTC) of Umo Eno’s academic credentials, which Senator Bassey Albert used in his petition against Eno.

Contrarily, when the Director of Academic Affairs of the university, Dr Ime Akpabio, appeared as witness in the court on June 16, 2023, he claimed that Mr Akpan who signed the CTC copies was non-existent as a staff of the institution.

At the resumed hearing on June 20, 2023, Mr Akpan’s appearance in the court shocked the defendant’s counsel such that their lead counsel, Paul Usoro SAN excused himself and went outside, ostensibly to study the witness’s written address.

The court, which subsequently announced recess for 30minutes eventually resumed after over an hour, to examine Mr Akpan’s evidence.

Led in this evidence by Tunde Falola, Mr Daniel Akpan tendered his letter of employment, IPPIS letter as well as pay advice covering 2021 to May 2023 from the university to establish that he is a bona fide staff of the institution.

The witness carefully identified all the documents which UNIUYO had certified through him as well as the Remita Retrieval Reference (RRR) receipt for the payment of the certification.

Asked if he certified the documents in his capacity as a staff of the university, Mr Akpan answered in the affirmative. He went on to affirm that he was assigned from the office of the registrar to certify Umo Eno’s academic records. According to him Mr AniediAbasi Udofia was the registrar then.

On cross-examination, Akpan said part of the job schedule of an Admin officer includes receiving documents assigned to him for the office of the registrar and can also certify documents assigned to him from the Office of the Registrar.

Asked who drafts letters for the Registrar, he said the Registrar can assign anyone in his office for the assignment.

He told the court he rose as a Clerical Officer to Admin Officer, after he studied Quantity Surveying at the University of Uyo.

When Uwemedimo Nwoko suggested that he was not an Admin officer because his salary on the pay slip did not reflect what was on the promotion letter, Mr Akpan said he was not the one determining his pay.

According to him, he was posted from the Registrar’s office to the Faculty of Environmental Science in April 2023.

Ggt

And so....
What is verdict?

I always say that the case before The Tribunal sitting in Uyo is very weighty, it will be hard for Governor Eno to scale through.

saintkeppy:
I always say that the case before The Tribunal sitting in Uyo is very weighty, it will be hard for Governor Eno to scale through.

Very true