A’ibom: Group Blasts YPP Over Demand for Relocation of Guber Election Tribunal

A socio political group Akwa Ibom Integrity Alliance has appealed to well-meaning people to disregard the recent demand by the Young Progressive Party and it’s governorship candidate in Akwa ibom state Senator Bassey Albert Akpan for the relocation of the governorship Tribunal currently sitting in Uyo to Abuja.

Our Correspondent recalls that the governorship candidate of the Young Progressive Party Senator Bassey Albert Akpan had written to the President Court of Appeal demanding that the election Tribunal sitting in Uyo be relocated to Abuja or disbanded due to rising insecurity around the venue of the sitting.

The group who described the YPP’s demand as a ploy meant to delay the judgement of the tribunal noted that the strange demand amounts to Shifting of the goal-posts in the middle of the game.

According to the National coordinator of the group Barr. Daniel Abia in a press briefing with Journalists in Uyo Akwa ibom state on Friday, ” Let the tribunal do their work where they are. There is no iota of truth in the insecurity propaganda of the YPP. It is a figment of Senator Bassey Albert’s imagination, induced by failure from polls to imminent failure in the court.

The group further highlighted,” Senator Bassey Albert had seventeen witnesses, and all had testified without being hurt or threatened. No one who has ever come to the tribunal has been reported hurt.

“The State director general of the campaign organisation of the YPP, Pastor Sunny Ibuot and the State Chairman of the Party, Apostle Nyeneime Andy have been witnessing the tribunal every adjourned date, and there has never been any story of their being molested”.

” The said Tuesday, June 20, 2023, was the second time Senator Bassey Albert had come to the tribunal physically. He had already been led in evidence by his counsel that evening and was meant to appear before the tribunal next morning for completion of cross examination on him by the defense counsel. That is something that could have been achieved within one hour. Is that the only item that the YPP wishes to use and prompt the tribunal to be relocated to Abuja?

“Bassey Albert also claims that his vehicle was riddled with bullets, and his supporters attacked, that is not a difficult thing to prove in contemporary society where every handheld phone has a camera. Or did security agents confiscate their phones? Why can’t a single picture of the alleged attack on them be produced?

“On the contrary, it was even Senator Albert’s security team that confiscated the camera of a photo-journalist, Mr Daniel Etim, during a recess by the tribunal on the said Tuesday. The journalist only managed to escape the attack dogs who accompanied the senator to the court premises after scaling a fence and running into the police station adjacent to the court premises. It was not until the resumed hearing when the lead counsel to the second defendant, Paul Usoroh, SAN raised the issue with the tribunal, and Bassey Albert reluctantly asked his security personnel to return the camera to the journalist at the directive of the tribunal”.

Barr. Abia explained that on the day the petition for relocation of tribunal to Abuja was announced, Dr Sunny Usoro, a member of Senator Albert’s legal team who was spotted at the tribunal, pleaded that he came there as a friend of the court and not to represent his client.
” He also confessed that there was safety in court the previous day. So, what is Bassey Albert and his wailing YPP afraid of?”.

“They feign insecurity whereas the proposed call for relocation, masking the main reasons, being frustration and failure

“From the abysmal performance of his star witnesses, alleged staff of the University of Uyo, Mr Daniel Akpan who knew nothing about his employment status or duties in the university, to the statistician who admitted that he was well paid by the YPP, it was clear that Senator Bassey Albert knew that his fate was nose-diving hence the initiative of wanting a tribunal that are practically done with, to be relocated to Abuja.

“What could make the political party to wish that the Governorship Tribunal sitting in Akwa Ibom State should be relocated to Abuja when the tribunal is almost winding down”.

New Telegraph