How Akpabio-backed APC chairman obtained court judgement with forged document

A factional chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State, Stephen Ntukekpo, filed a forged document at a Federal High Court, Abuja, to outwit a rival who is seeking the same office, according to documents obtained by PREMIUM TIMES.

The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, is backing Mr Ntukekpo’s faction of the APC in the battle to control the party structure in Akwa Ibom.

Austin Ekanem leads the other faction. The former national secretary of the APC, John Akpanudoedehe, is politically supporting him.

Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had on March 17, sacked Mr Ekanem and other party executives, and ordered him replaced with Mr Ntukekpo.

The suit was filed by Mr Ntukekpo.

The APC and its then national chairman, Mai Mala Buni and Mr Akpanudoedehe, including the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), were the respondents in the suit.

Justice Taiwo’s court had accepted as exhibit, a “summary result sheet” of the October 16, 2021 APC State Congress, which showed Mr Ntukekpo as the elected chairman of the party in Akwa Ibom. The judge gave the ruling in favour of Mr Ntukekpo, based on the exhibit.

Mr Ekanem did not take part in the congress, the court said.

“The purported substitution of the plaintiffs as members of the Akwa Ibom State Executive Committee of the APC, with unelected persons chosen by the 1st to 3rd defendants, and, who did not participate at the state congress of the party held on October 16, 2021 is unlawful and illegal,” Mr Taiwo had said in the ruling.

It, however, turned out that the “summary result sheet” filed in court by Mr Ntukekpo was fake and the signatures forged, officials have said.

‘Ntukekpo forged my signature’

Sheriff Banki, who headed a seven-man committee that conducted the APC state congress in Akwa Ibom, raised an alarm in January that his signature was forged by Mr Ntukekpo in the court document.

Mr Banki alerted the APC of the development through a letter he sent to the then national chairman, Mr Buni, on January 11.

He also sent a similar letter to the Inspector General of Police, the Director General of the State Security Service, and the chairman of INEC.

“As you may recall, you appointed me as the Chairman of the APC Congress Committee to Akwa Ibom State for the Ward, LGA, and State’s Congresses, and I acquitted myself creditably,” Mr Bank said to Mr Buni in the letter.

“I submitted the results and the reports accordingly, but to my utter dismay, my attention was drawn to a suit filed in the Federal High Court, Abuja, by one Stephen Leo Ntukekpo who swore to an affidavit and attached fake results sheets where my signature was forged and he declared himself the State Chairman-elect for Akwa Ibom State,” Mr Banki said in the letter.

The results sheet, which Mr Banki said was fake and his signature…