Breaking: Gov Ayade floors Joe Agi in Supreme Court
Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State[/caption]
The legal tussle in Cross River State over alleged age falsification has been put to rest as the Supreme Court on Friday upheld the election of Governor Ben Ayade as duly nominated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The plaintiff, Mr. Joe Agi SAN, who came second in the party’s December 2014 primary, had asked the court to sack Ayade over false declaration of age.
In the judgment read by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the panel of justices held that Agi and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could not prove the allegation against the governor.
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The panel said Agi could not even differentiate between the false document and the original, which was not good enough to make a case.
The panel agreed with Ayade that the difference in his age declaration occurred due to the urgency needed to fill out his forms.
The justices said Section 147 of the 1999 constitution as amended put the required age at 35 for governor, adding that if he used 1968 or 1969 he had already met the requirement to hold the office.
“Case of falsification without identifying the original from the fake is not good enough,” she said. “I endorse the judgement of the lower court, which affirmed the decision of the lower court.”
