Battle for Cross River APC governorship ticket shifts to court, as hearing fixed for Thursday
[From ANIEKAN ANIEKAN, Calabar]
Renewed battle for the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Cross River State has shifted to the Federal High Court in Calabar presided over by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu.
The battle is between former senator representing central senatorial district of the state John Owan Enoh and his Southern Senatorial District counterpart, Prince Bassey Edet Otu.
The crux of the battle which has as suit number: FHC/CA/CS/95/2022 is whether the Senator Otu presented the right certificates for screening and also whether the party acted properly in clearing the winner of the primary.
Senator John Owan Enoh is the plaintiff in the suit while the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), All Progressive Congress (APC) and Governorship candidate, Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu are defendants.
When the matter came up today, counsel to Senator John Owan Enoh, Awa Kalu (SAN), argued that to be qualified to run for party primaries, the aspirants must be screened by the screening committee set up by the second defendant (APC) and cleared to run for party primaries, which is a major criterion for aspirants participation in party primaries.
He further argued that, “Our submission is that, based on the documents available to us, the third defendant (Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu), has not showed that he was fully cleared after screening and the plaintiff hasn’t equally indication that there was an appeal to the screening committee from the third defendant.”
On his part, counsel to Mike Ozekhone SAN, remarked that, “Order 4 room 1 of the Federal High Court pre-election practice direction makes it clear that you can only come to court by way of Originating Summons, which must be brought by way of affidavit evidence.
“The law is that, he cannot now come suddenly, to bring in oral evidence by calling someone from WAEC to come and testify, we don’t know what he wants to testify about; but the law is that before he can even be allowed to testify, he must first show the contradiction he wants to address, which he has not showed”, he said.
However, following the arguments of the third defendant against counsel to Senator Enoh, on the grounds of Originating Summons, the presiding judge, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu ruled that the matter is adjourned to Thursday, September 8, 2022, to allow parties produce their thoughts on the matter.
