Akpabio-backed APC chairman should be charged for forgery – Police report

A police investigation has confirmed that Stephen Ntukekpo, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), used cast paperwork to acquire a courtroom judgement which paved the best way for him to be sworn in because the APC chairman in Akwa Ibom State.

A bit of authorized recommendation from the police, obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, on Monday in Abuja, beneficial that Mr Ntukekpo be charged to courtroom for forgery and impersonation.

“From the details and out there proof within the case file, we’re of the thought-about opinion {that a} prima facie case of impersonation and forgery has been established towards the suspect, Stephen Leo Ntukekpo and subsequently suggested that the suspect be charged to courtroom accordingly,” mentioned a memo from the Authorized and Prosecution Part, Drive Prison Investigation Division (FCID), Drive Headquarters, Abuja.

The memo, dated July 4, 2022, and titled Authorized Recommendation, was despatched to the workplace of the Deputy Inspector Common of Police accountable for the FCID.

It was signed by Ochogwu Ogbeh, a deputy commissioner of police, who heads the Authorized and Prosecution Part on the pressure headquarters.

The police investigation was prompted by a grievance of forgery from a chieftain of the APC, Sheriff Banki, who chaired the APC committee which carried out the occasion state congress in Akwa Ibom State final 12 months.

One other individual, Austin Ekanem, who took half within the congress, was elected the chairman of the APC in Akwa Ibom, and never Mr Ntukekpo.

Mr Banki was shocked and indignant when he learnt his signature was cast and Mr Ekanem, the person who was elected the APC chairman in Akwa Ibom, was changed with Mr Ntukekpo.

Mr Ntukekpo is backed by a former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, who has the assist of the Nationwide Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Adamu, and the Nationwide Secretary, Iyiola Omisore.

The APC nationwide chairman, Mr Adamu, swore in Mr Ntukekpo because the APC chairman in Akwa Ibom at Abuja in April, 2022, regardless of a opposite order by the Court docket of Attraction, Abuja.

The Attraction Court docket on April 7 directed all of the events within the case “to keep up the established order” pending the willpower of the case, however Mr Adamu hurriedly swore in Mr Ntukekpo on April 11, about 72 hours after the courtroom order.

The APC, nevertheless, fraudulently backdated to March 26, Mr Ntukekpo’s oath of workplace, to keep away from the occasion being seen as violating an order of the courtroom, in accordance with paperwork seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

The forgery in APC and the a number of courtroom circumstances that adopted threw the occasion in Akwa Ibom into a sophisticated disaster which has made it incapable of manufacturing a governorship candidate until now within the state for the 2023 elections.

The disaster has additionally truncated Mr Akpabio’s ambition to return to the Senate subsequent 12 months.

The police advice that Mr Ntukekpo should be charged for forgery and impersonation has confirmed the earlier reporting on the matter by PREMIUM TIMES.

It has additionally vindicated the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, who a few of the APC leaders within the state have been accusing, with out proof, of being accountable for the occasion disaster within the state.

Ntukekpo’s response

PREMIUM TIMES couldn’t instantly attain Mr Ntukekpo for his remark, as he didn’t reply to calls from our reporter.

However the APC chairman, in a earlier interview with PREMIUM TIMES, had admitted that the police invited him for questioning over the forgery case.

Mr Ntukekpo was not categorical about whether or not the end result sheets he offered to the courtroom had been cast or not.

“I wasn’t the writer, I didn’t manufacture, I didn’t produce in any kind or style the so-called end result sheet of the congress. I used to be solely an aspirant,” he mentioned in a response to a query from PREMIUM TIMES