Refuting smear claims against Udom Emmanuel, Umo Eno, in Bassey Albert matter

By Emmanuel Nicholas

Spreading evil lies against the Person of His Excellency Deacon Udom Emmanuel and trying to rope in Governor Umo Eno, as the Ibibio people are responsible for the imprisonment of Senator Bassey Albert.

I doubt that most of you talking on social media don’t know the origin of the case against OBA, and at the time that the case began in 2010, Deacon Udom Emmanuel had never dreamt of becoming a politician, he was still in Zenith Bank as Executive Director.

How the case started and who took the case to EFCC

By a petition dated 10 May 2010, Obong Bassey Albert Akpan, then Commissioner for Finance of Akwa Ibom State, was the subject of allegations lodged by Barrister Leo Ekepeyong that he had allegedly received from one Jide Omokore an armoured BMW X5 (bulletproof) valued at N50m.

It was further alleged that in December 2012, the same source conveyed to him an armoured Infiniti QX56 valued at N45m; that in November 2013, he received an armoured Toyota Land Cruiser V8 valued at N40m; that in March 2014 he received a Range Rover valued at N40m; and that in September 2014 he received a Toyota Hiace High-Roof bus valued at N27m.

The petition additionally alleges that, at various times between 2012 and 2014, he received Toyota Hiace High-Roof buses valued at N16m and six units of Toyota Hilux vehicles valued in the aggregate at N36m.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in the course of its investigation into monies expended in relation to the 2015 elections, identified Jide Omokore as a suspected conduit for the disbursement of purportedly illicit funds for electoral purposes.

And in the same year, Bassey Albert was offered an opportunity by the EFCC for of court settlement, but he rejected the offer.

During interrogation, Omokore disclosed multiple transactions involving Obong Bassey Albert Akpan, who by that time had assumed office as a Senator.

Despite being repeatedly summoned to account for his alleged role in the transactions, he failed to honour the EFCC’s invitations until his arrest on 15 May 2018.

Thereafter, on 20 August 2018, he was arraigned before the High Court sitting at Ikeja on a charge alleging contravention of Section 15(2)(d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended), an offence punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.

How the case was moved to Uyo Federal High Court

In many Facebook commentaries, people have said that Udom Emmanuel was responsible for moving the case from Lagos to Uyo so that he could influence it and convict Senator Bassey Albert, preventing him from standing for election.

The truth

During the pendency of proceedings before the Ikeja Registry, Obong Bassey Albert, by means of his solicitors, advanced a preliminary objection challenging the court’s jurisdiction.

Counsel contended that the material particulars contained in the proof of evidence failed to aver or disclose that any act constituting the alleged offence against the first defendant occurred within the territorial ambit of Lagos State rather than Akwa Ibom State.

They urged the tribunal to determine the locus of delivery of the vehicles, asserting by way of legal submission that the cars were delivered in Akwa Ibom State, and submitted that, absent any pleaded or evidential foundation demonstrating that the first defendant received the vehicles in Lagos State, the Lagos forum lacked territorial competence to proceed.

The adjudicating court accepted the jurisdictional challenge and held that it was incompetent to entertain the matter, as the alleged commission of the offence had been laid outside its territorial remit.

Thereafter, the EFCC arraigned Sen. Bassey Albert at the Federal High Court, Uyo, on 24 June 2019. The matter has since remained on the court roll, beset by recurrent adjournments attributable to delays by the defence team, including occasions when defence counsel notified the court that their lead advocate had travelled abroad for medical treatment and had taken the case file, among other purportedly perfunctory excuses.

This is how the judiciary relocated the case to the Federal High Court in Uyo, and at no time were either Udom Emmanuel or Pastor Umo Eno involved.

Ibibio Imaha Mmo

During the 2023 electoral season, Pastor Andy, erstwhile State Chairman of the now-defunct Young Progressives Party (YPP ascended his pulpit in Holyghost Ambassadors Church and, in an open and public manner, leveled grave accusations at Governor Umo Eno, alleging the absence of a valid academic certification and vowing that his party would see to the governor’s incarceration.

It is pertinent to ask whether, in issuing such condemnations, Pastor Andy ever paused to consider that Governor Umo Eno is, like himself, an Ibibio man deserving of fraternal respect and protection from undue vilification.

If the banner he now raises is truly one of Ibibio unity, what then of the concerted efforts he once led efforts calculated to destroy the reputation of a fellow Ibibio son whom he had accused before his congregation?

Now that the veil seems to have lifted and he recognizes that his conduct was harmful, rather than seeking divine absolution, he appears to be substituting repentance with further opportunism: exploiting the legal troubles of Senator Bassey Albert to attempt to politically blackmail Deacon Udom Emmanuel, as though his memory of prior transgressions had been conveniently erased.

The excesses of that period did not stop at rhetoric. At the funeral of Senator Bassey Albert’s brother, a solemn occasion that demanded dignity, congregants reportedly sang a derisive refrain, “Ake Kaa Uwed ke Uniuyo ke ben Paper, Akaa Uwed ke Lagos, Ke ben paper di”, a performance that reduced a bereaved family and demeaned another Ibibio son before his grave.

Throughout the campaigns and in the aftermath, self acclaimed Local man’s public conduct, from body-shaming the governor with epithets such as “albino,” to persistent accusations of forgery, to the unconscionable mockery following the death of Governor Umo Eno’s wife, Pastor Patience Umo Eno, betrays a pattern of relentless denigration that sits uneasily with any sincere claim to communal solidarity.

It should be underscored that neither Deacon Udom Emmanuel nor Governor Umo Eno had a hand in the prosecution of Senator Bassey Albert; the legal matter dates back to 2010, long before the present political alignments, and those who appeal to equity must therefore do so with clean hands.

If one proclaims “Ibibio Imaha Idem Mmo” yet persistently seeks to destroy a brother who shows merit and leadership, such a posture is not unity but hypocrisy; truth, in that case, is far removed, and the altar upon which it is proclaimed becomes a pedestal for falsehood.

The Ibibio people are not divided among themselves; rather, a handful of individuals who sought to undermine others in pursuit of electoral victory are now lamenting spilt milk instead of reforming their ways and relinquishing the bitterness born of failure.

The Governor has reconciled with his brother, Senator Bassey Akbert, whom he respects and holds in the highest esteem. He is working with him on a renewed, inclusive agenda for the advancement of Akwa Ibom State and will not be distracted by purveyors of blackmail.