Tribunal Upholds Election Of Cross River Governor Bassey Otu

The Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Calabar the Cross River State Capital on Tuesday
upheld the election of Governor Bassey Otu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Tribunal judge struck out the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Sandy Onor, against the election of Governor Bassey Otu.

According to the judgment delivered by the panel, the petition was dismissed for lack of merit.

Onor had filed a petition after INEC declared Bassey Otu of the APC as the winner of the governorship election of March 18 poll in the South-South state.

The results announced by INEC put Otu’s tally of votes at 258,619, while Onor reportedly polled 179,636.

The APC candidate won in 15 local government areas of 18 LGAs declared by the commission in Calabar, the Cross River State capital.

The petitioner alleged that Otu and his deputy Peter Odey brought documents to show that they forged documents.

Consequently, the PDP candidate said the respondent wasted their votes because they were not qualified to stand for the election and prayed that the tribunal declare him (petitioner) winner of the elections.

But delivering the judgment on Tuesday, the tribunal held that the petition was unmeritorious, frivolous and failed to prove why the respondent should be disqualified.