Umana Brought Fake Fingerprint Experts – Udom

Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State says it was unfortunate that Mr Umana Umana brought in fake experts who knew practically nothing about forensic sciences to inspect the elections material of the April 11, 2015 governorship elections.

Speaking at the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, Gov Udom through his lead counsel Mr Paul Usoro SAN Thursday dismissed the forensic evidence tendered by the Guber candidate of the All Progressive Congress, Mr Umana Umana as being unacceptable and of no legal consequence.

In his written address adopted by the tribunal, Mr Usoro submitted that Mr Umana’s effort in putting together the finger print analysis to prove that there was no election in Akwa Ibom state on April 11 was an exercise in futility

Usoro adduced reasons why the testimonies of the purported finger prints experts cannot be accepted in law as the persons hired by the petitioner were not certified and at best quacks.

Mr Umana had procured Mr Sanusi Turay, Abdulahi Dauda and Salisu Abdulahi who paraded themselves as “experts “and tendered a joint report which they claimed to have carried out forensic analysis on 129,209 scanned ballot votes in 15 LGAs.

However, in his witness statement on oath, Abdulahi Dauda had claimed to have “bagged an Msc degree in Project Management” from the University of Georgia, Washington, USA. But when he was confronted by Mr Emmanuel’s lawyers that their Google search did not turn up any such university, he acknowledged that, indeed, there was no such University of George Washington. Governor Emmanuel’s lawyers submit that the forensic “expert” is an impostor and a fraudster.

Mr Emmanuel’s lawyers have asked the judges to dismiss Mr Umana’s petition in its entirety and refuse all the reliefs sought.

Final judgement has been reserved for a later date.