From the Desk of Barister Andem Ndem: Sen. Ita Enang and Nsima Umoh

Compliments of the Season! Thank you very much for the great work you are doing for Ibibio Nation. This mail seeks to update you on the current status of the above case as follows;

 

1. I am the lead Counsel to Obong Nsima Umoh in this election petition and by virtue of my position, I am conversant with the facts of this matter and I have the mandate of my client to issue this statement.

 

2. Before PDP was eventually consigned to the dustbin to continue its deep slumber in respect of this petition, the lead counsel to Ita Enang, Joe Agi, Esq, SAN, had earlier on tried to circumvent the hearing of this matter on the merit by filing a preliminary objection to the effect that 180 days had elapsed between when this petition was filed and the completion of its circuitous trajectory to the Court of Appeal in Calabar and then to Uyo before this new tribunal. We filed our response and countered that once a superior court like the Court of Appeal, Calabar, upholds an Appeal and directs that it be heard, DE NOVO, that is afresh, time also begins to run afresh thereby giving us a completely new 180 days within which to proof our petition. This objection was ably argued by my Associate Counsel, Barrister M U Peters, who happens to be my deputy in the Legal Office of ACN in Akwa Ibom State. The tribunal, in a considered ruling, agreed with our position and dismissed Ita Enang's objection and ordered all parties to proceed to Pre-trial session which is a condition precedent for the hearing of the petition.

 

3. It was out of the desperation inflicted by the above defeat that they tried to smuggle in PDP through the back door. The background to this is that the PDP, in its characteristic over-confident manner, had gone to sleep after having been served with our petition, ab initio. They did not bother to file any reply to it. Perhaps, they had relied on some other arrangement to win the petition, as usual. Even when we went on Appeal, we served them our briefs, yet they refused to respond. When we returned to the new Tribunal, we served them papers again but they still refused to respond. It was when they realized that Ita Enang is about to pack his bags out of the Senate to allow the authentic Senator Nsima Umoh to take over that they tried to wake up from their deep slumber. In the words of the Tribunal; “PDP cannot suddenly resurrect to exhibit consuming passion to defend the petition now after inordinate delay in the dream land of deep slumber''. Equity does not aid the indolent.

 

4. We are fully conscious of their delaying tactics of playing for time by filing spurious applications, which they know will never succeed, not with a serious Tribunal, such as the one we have now. On 9th January, 2012, we shall drive the nail into their coffin and pave the way for a full blown trial of a magnitude that has never been seen before in Akwa Ibom State. In the meantime, visit www.pcdpoverty.org to see the profile of our in-coming Senator, Obong Nsima

 

Umoh.

Andem E. Ndem, Esq