The Supreme Court has dismissed the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) appeal challenging the membership of Cross River Governor, Sen Prince Bassey Otu, in the All Progressive Congress (APC) as well as his election victory.
The Court of Appeal, Calabar Judicial Division, had dismissed the appeal filed by the PDP governorship candidate, Sen. Sandy Onor, against Governor Otu.
Onor had approached both the tribunal and appellate court, insisting that Otu must be disqualified from the race for allegedly holding dual citizenship, certificate forgery and for not being a member of the APC as of the time of the election.
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But the two lower courts dismissed the PDP case, agreeing with the governor’s counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome, that the PDP cannot challenge the governor on the grounds of party sponsorship and nomination because they were not aspirants during the APC governorship primaries.
At the hearing on Thursday, Joshua.J. Musa, asked the apex court to set aside subsisting judgments of the courts below for being perverse.
But K.O. Balogun, counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), urged the apex court to dismiss the appeal because the APC membership register tendered as evidence at the two lower courts showed that the governor was the party’s member.
The governor’s lawyer, Ozekhome, asked the apex court to dismiss the matter with punitive costs.
On Friday, Justice Helen Ogunwumijo of the apex court held that record showed that the governor was duly elected on the platform of his party.
Regarding the appellants alleged certificate forgery, Ogunwumijo said the appellant made a “nonsensical case” without credible evidence.
The judge said evidence showed the governor did not give false information about the secondary school he attended.
She dismissed the appeal, saying the apex court cannot “subvert the will of the people” over false allegation by the appellants.