Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has denied the claims of perjury made against Stephen Ntukepo, the party’s chairman in Akwa Ibom.
The party disputed the claims made by the resident electoral commissioner Mike Igini that the party’s congress documents had been forged by the chairman (Ntukepo), stating that the claim was made to serve the needs of Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, a former member of the National Caretaker Committee.
Igini and Akpanudoedehe, who has since left the APC to run for governor on the platform of the New Nigerian Peoples Party, were never found guilty of perjury or forgery, the party that made the rebuttal in its letter to the Inspector General of Police on July 25, 2022, signed by the National Secretary, Senator Iyiola Omisore, claimed (NNPP).
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, and the Deputy Inspector General, Force Criminal Investigation Department, all received copies of the letter that Vanguard obtained (FCID).
The full text of the letter is as follows: “Our attention has been drawn to news reports on the attempt by the Nigerian Police to arrest and charge Stephen Leo Ntukekpo, the state chairman of the APC in Akwa Ibom State, with forgery in connection with our party’s state congress held on October 16, 2021.
According to additional information, one Sheriff Banki, who was the Adhoc Committee Chairman of the APC State Congress Committee, complained that his signature on the final sheet was forged, is the basis for the claimed proposed accusation.
“As the organization that authorized and directed the state congress, we wish to emphasize that the Sheriff in question did not act in the Congress Panel alone, but rather in conjunction with five other people, including the Secretary Sule Yakubu.
We checked Mr. Banki’s claim against the claims of the other committee members and the given papers, and we are absolutely certain that neither a signature nor a document were altered.
We have 36 copies of the state congress results sheets that were submitted to the national secretariat of our party, the APC, and which are duly authenticated by the aforementioned Sheriff Banki as chairman and Sule Yakubu as secretary. We have no reason to doubt the accuracy of these results sheets because they were duly authenticated by other members of the congress committee.
“We view any allegations of forgery as an afterthought and an attempt to advance the interests of Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, our former Secretary of the Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party, who has since left our party to run as the NNPP’s candidate for governor of Akwa Ibom State in 2023.
“For the sake of clarity, it could be required that you direct forensic analysis toward validating the signatures on the 36 result sheets, which are thus attached with the pertinent signatures therein. We firmly feel that the NPF Forensic Lab, Alagbon Close, Lagos, would be beneficial in that regard.
“Allow us to draw your attention to the fact that Sule Yakubu, the secretary of the Congress Committee for Akwa Ibom State, has long distanced himself from any claims of sheet tampering and has signed an affidavit to that effect on the matter of Stephen Ntukekpo’s purported signature forgery.
The results of the congress in question, which were obtained after due procedures and in accordance with our guidelines, were submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the genuine outcomes of the Akwa Ibom State Congress. “Finally, we state that the congress in question was authorized and conducted by the National Secretariat of the APC.
We firmly stand by that outcome, as well as the submitted score sheets for each position.
