Cross River Guber: Otu, Onor Know Fate Friday

* As apex court reserves judgment in Ogun governorship tussle

Alex Enumah in Abuja

A five-member panel of the Supreme Court has adjourned to Friday to deliver its judgment in the appeal filed by Prof. Sandy Onor and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the election of Bassey Otu as Governor of Cross River State.

Similarly, the apex court has reserved judgment in the appeal against the election of Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State.

The five-member panel, led by Justice John Okoro, said judgments have been reserved in the separate appeals filed against the March 18 governorship election in Cross River and Ogun States, shortly after their respective lawyers adopted and argued their cases for and against the appeals.

However, a few minutes after the court finished hearing in the appeals of Cross River State, a registrar announced that judgment in the appeal would be delivered Friday, January 12, 2024.

Onor and the PDP are challenging the concurrent judgments of the Cross River State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, on the grounds that the judgments were perverse and should be upturned by the apex court.

Their lawyer, Dr Joshua Musa (SAN), told the apex court that the two lower courts erred in law in holding that Otu was a lawful candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), even though he had defected from the PDP and refused to vacate his seat at the state assembly in line with the judgment of a Federal High Court.

He argued that the refusal to vacate office was an act of disobedience to the court, adding that the implication is that he remains a member of the PDP and could not have been validly sponsored by the APC.

In their responses, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Governor Otu, represented by Prof. Mike Ozekhome (SAN), urged the court to dismiss the appeal for being incompetent and lacking in merit.

Ozekhome pointed out that the case of the appellants was a complete waste of the apex court’s time because the issue has already been decided by both the tribunal and Court of Appeal, adding that the issue, which borders around qualification, is a pre-election matter, well outside the jurisdiction of the apex court.

The Appeal Court in Lagos had, on November 22, 2023, affirmed the election of Bassey Otu as the governor of Cross River State.

The appellate court, in its unanimous judgment, dismissed the appeal of Onor and PDP and upheld the judgment of the Election Petition Tribunal delivered on September 26, 2023 which upheld the election of Otu of APC, and his deputy, Peter Odey.

INEC had in March last year declared Otu winner of the governorship poll, having polled a total of 258,619 votes winning in 15 of the 18 local governments of the state, to defeat his closest rival, Senator Sandy Onor of the PDP, who polled 179,636 votes.

Meanwhile, judgment in the Ogun State appeals have been reserved to a date that would be communicated to parties in the suit.

PDP’s candidate, Oladipo Adebutu, through his lawyer, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), pointed out that the case of the appellants was misconceived at the lower courts, adding that evidence were presented before the tribunal to prove that results from 99 polling units with votes of over 40,000 were cancelled.

He argued that the said 40,000 votes is far more than the margin of 13,000 votes between Abiodun and Adebutu.

He submitted that INEC was wrong to have gone ahead to declare results of the March 18 governorship election in Ogun State, when the issue of cancelled votes in 99 polling units had not been resolved.

However, all the respondents citing Section 179 of the Constitution argued that the election of a governor can not be challenged on grounds of margin of lead.

Justice Okoro subsequently announced that judgment has been reserved, after taking all submissions from parties.

Details later…